Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Another Cold War Icon Crumbles

Wow. This is something I have known all my life that I would eventually see, but it still caught me unawares when I heard it on the BBC Overnight as breaking news at about 3:00 a.m. Fidel Castro is officially out of power permanently. Maybe I am stunned because of how he left - voluntarily. Usually leaders cast from the same mold as Castro leave in a box or at the barrel of a gun.

Sometimes they are marched outside at gunpoint and then they leave in a box - Think Christmas with the Ceausescu's.

But resigning? Holy hell, what a mindblower that is!

Fidel Castro has been in charge in Cuba all my life. Until today. Add this to the Berlin Wall coming down, Boris Yeltsin standing on that tank, the demise of SAC, the closing of iconic military installations on foreign soil, like Clark, Subic and Rhine Mein; or the Czech-Slovak no-fault divorce.

It's a real live seismic shift in world politics, a signal moment where everything changed. How this all unfolds is going to be interesting to watch indeed.

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