Fidel Castro on danger of nuclear war

international | anti-war / imperialism | news report Tuesday July 13, 2010 16:27 by non-voter SBU thackerady at gmail dot com

Cuba's ex- leader made a rare appearance on Cuban TV two nights ago in which he warned that current US/Zionist policies on Iran will lead to nuclear war .

Fidel Castro appeared on the Cuban television current affairs talk show ,Mesa Redondo, ("Round Table") on Monday night for his first major interview since resigning as Cuban president four years ago. Castro’s main concern in the broadcast was to warn of the possibility of imminent nuclear war triggered by an American and Israeli attack on Iran .

Over the past few months , Cuba's former president has become increasingly concerned with the US military and political build-up for a war with Iran which he appears to regard as being almost inevitable.

In his syndicated Reflection column , Castro last week pointed to the US naval build-up in the Persian Gulf saying that any US /zionist confrontation with Iran will unleash a “catastrophic” nuclear war . He stated a conviction that “The empire is about to commit a priceless error and nothing can stop it.”

http://www.politicsonline.gr/2010/07/reflections-by-fid...stro/

The Cuban revolutionary leader’s praise in the Reflections article for Iran’s current president will perhaps puncture some of the Islamophobic anti- Ahmadinejad campaign that many of Castro’s former supporters in the west are now signed up for . Comparing favourably Iran’s readiness to confront the US and “the fascist State of Israel” to the preparedness of the Saddam Hussein regime for war in 2003 , Castro said :

“The president of Iran and its religious leaders will resist, drawing inspiration from the Islamic Revolution headed by Ruhollah Khomeini, the creator of the Guardians of Revolution, the modern Armed Forces and the new State of Iran."

Painting a grim picture for the hopes for humanity ,the Reflections column appealed to the poor people of the world whose option would ,he wrote be , " coping with the consequences of the catastrophic nuclear war that will break out very soon”

Castro has sometimes been portayed by the right wing media as an out of touch Jeremiah figure since his retirement in 2006 . But CBS News yesterday reported the 83 year old as appearing "relaxed healthy and lucid" , and very much like his former self i , “[s]peaking firmly and quoting extensively from military experts, sociologists and others” in his television appearance .

Castro’s warning about the possibility of a nuclear war breaking out in the near future should be taken with the greatest of seriousness . Although retired, Castro still has close links to Cuba’s political and military leaderships as well as to the country’s intelligence services ; it can be taken as a certainty that, in the Mesa Redondo interview, he was expressing fears shared by many of them .

American and Israeli right wingers are already expressing skepticism about the effectiveness of the sanctions currently imposed on Iran .

“[V]eterans of the Bush administration's pre-Iraq invasion propaganda offensive are clearly mobilising their arguments for a similar effort on Iran”, Global Research reported yesterday.

Bush's former national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, and Israeli Brig. Gen. Michael Herzog argued in a paper published last week that the US/Israel should “begin to plan now for a course of action should sanctions be deemed ineffective by the first or second quarter of next year.” http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=20104