Fidel Castro: Mubarak’s done

Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro, who knows a thing or two about staying in power too long, says Mubarak is toast in his latest column for Granma:

THE die is cast for Mubarak and not even the support of the United States can save his government. An intelligent people, with a glorious history which left its mark on human civilization, live in Egypt. "From the height of these pyramids 40 centuries contemplate you," Bonaparte exclaimed, it is said, in a moment of passion when the encyclopedists’ revolution took him to that extraordinary crossroad of civilizations.

In last week’s column, Castro accused the U.S. of playing both sides against each other in the conflict: 

Egypt was the Arab country to receive the largest supplies of armaments. Millions of young Egyptians are suffering unemployment and the food shortages provoked within the world economy, and Washington affirms that it is supporting them. Its Machiavellian conduct includes supplying weapons to the Egyptian government, while at the same time USAID was supplying funds to the opposition. Can the United States halt the revolutionary wave which is shaking the Third World?

It seems that like Robert Mugabe and Muammar al-Qaddafi, Castro’s not quite sure how to respond to the recent events in the Middle East. Normally, all three would relish an opportunity to rip the United States for hypocrisy on democracy promotion, but mass revolts against authoritarian governments are, generally speaking, not a trend they want to celebrate. So the position of all three seems to be that the United States is behind the overthrow of longtime U.S. allies. Seems like an awkward position. 

Incidentally, Castro’s missives seem to be getting increasingly incoherent these days. The most recent one consists almost entirely of wire service reports with the latest news from Egypt followed by a lament for the "future of our species."

Hat tip: Robert Schlesinger