Happy Birthday Fidel Castro
by Michel Chossudovsky
August 13, 2011
Today, August 13, 2011 it is the birthday of Fidel Castro Ruz, leader of the Cuban Revolution.
The Global Research team extends its warm greetings and best wishes to Comandante Fidel.
At the height of a US sponsored war and Worldwide economic crisis, Fidel Castro, the leader of the Cuban revolution, who
to this day defies America's imperial design, remains a source of hope and inspiration to those committed to social
justice and international solidarity.
Last October, I had the opportunity of spending several days at Fidel Castro`s home in the suburbs of Havana. Our
conversation and exchange focussed on the dangers of nuclear war.
I had read Fidel Castro and Che Guevara during my high school days in Geneva, Switzerland and later at university in
Britain and the US. When meeting him in person, I discovered a man of tremendous integrity, with an acute mind and sense
of humor, committed in the minute detail of his speech to social progress and the advancement of humankind, conscious of
the dangers of the US led war and the Worldwide crisis, with exceptional skills of analysis and understanding of his
fellow human beings, with a true sprit of internationalism and a tremendous knowledge of history, economics and
geopolitics.
On a daily basis, Fidel spends several hours reading a large number of detailed international press reports (As he
mentioned to me with a smile, "I frequently consult articles from the Global Research website"...)
We focussed in large part on the dangers of nuclear war. Fidel Castro has the knack of addressing political details
while relating them to key concepts. We also covered numerous complex international issues, focussing on the role of
prominent political personalities, heads of State, authors and intellectuals. On the first day, when I met Fidel at his
home, he was reading Bob Woodward's best-seller The Obama Wars which had just been released.
In this broad exchange of ideas, Fidel was invariably assertive in his views but at the same time respectful of those
whom he condemned or criticized, particularly when discussing US presidential politics.
Fidel is acutely aware of the mechanisms of media disinformation and war propaganda and how they are used to undermine
civil rights and social progress, not to mention the smear campaign directed against the Cuban revolution.
A central concept put forth by Fidel Castro in our discussions was the 'Battle of Ideas". The leader of the Cuban
Revolution believes that only a far-reaching "Battle of Ideas" can change the course of World history.
In addressing and understanding this Worldwide crisis, commitment to the Truth and analysis of the lies and fabrications
which sustain the corporate and financial elites is of utmost importance.
The overriding powers of the Truth can, under appropriate conditions, be used as a revolutionary instrument, as a catalyst to unseat the war criminals in
high office, whose role and position is sustained by propaganda and media disinformation.
In relation to 9/11, Fidel had expressed his solidarity, on behalf of the Cuban people, with the victims of the tragic
events of September 11 2001, while underscoring the lies and fabrications behind the official 9/11 narrative and how
9/11 has been used as a pretext to wage war.
Our focus was on nuclear war, which since our meeting last October has motivated me to write a book on the Dangers of
Nuclear War. (Michel Chossudovsky, Towards a World War III Scenario. Global Research, Montreal, 2011)
The corporate media is involved in acts of camouflage. The devastating impacts of a nuclear war are either trivialized
or not mentioned. Against this backdrop, Fidel's message to the World must be heard; people across the land, nationally
and internationally, should understand the gravity of the present situation and act forcefully at all levels of society
to reverse the tide of war.
The "Battle of Ideas" is part of a revolutionary process. Against a barrage of media disinformation, Fidel Castro's
resolve is to spread the word far and wide, to inform world public opinion, to "make the impossible possible", to thwart
a military adventure which in the real sense of the word threatens the future of humanity.
When a US sponsored nuclear war becomes an "instrument of peace", a "responsibility to protect" condoned and accepted by
the World's institutions and the highest authority including the United Nations, there is no turning back: human society
has indelibly been precipitated headlong onto the path of self-destruction.
Fidel's "Battle of Ideas" must be translated into a worldwide movement. People must mobilize against this diabolical
military agenda.
This war can be prevented if people pressure their governments and elected representatives, organize at the local level
in towns, villages and municipalities, spread the word, inform their fellow citizens regarding the implications of a
thermonuclear war, initiate debate and discussion within the armed forces.
What is required is a mass movement of people which forcefully challenges the legitimacy of war, a global people's
movement which criminalizes war.
In his October 15 speech, Fidel Castro warned the World on the dangers of nuclear war:
"There would be “collateral damage”, as the American political and military leaders always affirm, to justify the deaths
of innocent people. In a nuclear war the “collateral damage” would be the life of all humanity.
Let us have the courage to proclaim that all nuclear or conventional weapons, everything that is used to make war, must
disappear!"
The "Battle of Ideas" consists in confronting the war criminals in high office, in breaking the US-led consensus in
favor of a global war, in changing the mindset of hundreds of millions of people, in abolishing nuclear weapons. In
essence, the "Battle of Ideas" consists in restoring the truth and establishing the foundations of World peace.
"The Battle of Ideas" must be developed as a mass movement, nationally and internationally, waged by people across the
land.
Fidel Castro Ruz has indelibly marked the history of both the Twentieth and Twentyfirst Century. Below is the transcript
and video of Fidel's historic October 15 2011 speech focussing on the dangers of a nuclear war, recorded by Global
Research and Cuba Debate in his home in Havana in October 2010
Our best wishes to Fidel Castro on his Birthday, are
For a World of Peace,
A World of Truth, where people Worldwide join hands,
For a World of understanding, a World of tolerance and respect,
For the concurrent demise of neoliberalism and militarization which destroy people's lives,
For the outright criminalization of America's imperial wars,
For a World of Social Justice with a true "responsibility to protect" our fellow human beings,
To Truth in Media. For a World in which journalists are committed to reporting the truth,
Happy Birthday Comandante Fidel,
You are the source of tremendous inspiration. Our thoughts are with you.
Long Live Fidel Castro Ruz
Michel Chossudovsky, Global Research, Montreal, August 13, 2011
*************
Fidel's October 15, 2010 message on the Dangers of nuclear War
The use of nuclear weapons in a new war would mean the end of humanity. This was candidly foreseen by scientist Albert
Einstein who was able to measure their destructive capability to generate millions of degrees of heat, which would
vaporize everything within a wide radius of action. This brilliant researcher had promoted the development of this
weapon so that it would not become available to the genocidal Nazi regime.
Each and every government in the world has the obligation to respect the right to life of each and every nation and of
the totality of all the peoples on the planet.
Today there is an imminent risk of war with the use of that kind of weapon and I don’t harbour the least doubt that an
attack by the United States and Israel against the Islamic Republic of Iran would inevitably evolve towards a global
nuclear conflict.
The World’s peoples have an obligation to demand of their political leaders their Right to Live. When the life of
humankind, of your people and your most beloved human beings run such a risk, nobody can afford to be indifferent; not
one minute can be lost in demanding respect for that right; tomorrow will be too late.
Albert Einstein himself stated unmistakably: “I do not know with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World
War IV will be fought with sticks and stones”. We fully comprehend what he wanted to convey, and he was absolutely
right, yet in the wake of a global nuclear war, there wouldn’t be anybody around to make use of those sticks and stones.
There would be “collateral damage”, as the American political and military leaders always affirm, to justify the deaths
of innocent people.
In a nuclear war the “collateral damage” would be the life of all humanity.
Let us have the courage to proclaim that all nuclear or conventional weapons, everything that is used to make war, must
disappear!
Fidel Castro Ruz
October 15, 2010
ENDS