Fidel is dead.  Finally.  This is really not news, as in reality he's been dead for some time now.  What's news is how many people who should know better write about him as if this murderer, this tyrant was some kind of a hero.  Why? 

Do they see boats full of people from other Caribbean islands rushing to freedom, toward a better and more fulfilling life?  Do they see planeloads of Venezuelans, Bolivians, and others rushing to Havana to learn how to do revolution, how to straighten up their faltering revolutions, how to, finally, do it right?

Are Cubans, after fifty-plus years of his rule and thousands of dead and full prisons, so clearly better off than people in the rest of the Caribbean?  Are Cubans from Miami, tired of living in the corrupt, egoistic, greedy, and racist America, rushing back home?  Do the Russians look at the billions spent to keep Castro in power as an example of how to invest successfully?  Are the Venezuelans celebrating the returns on their Cuban investments? 

So what did he and his revolution really accomplish?  How different is Cuba of Castro from Cuba of Fulgencio Batista? 

Batista's gang was replaced by the Castros and their gang.  Batista secret service was replaced by Fidel's thugs.  Rich landowners were replaced by party apparatchiks.  American tourists were replaced by Russians and East Germans – for a while.  Now even they don't come.

Can anyone point out any accomplishment worthy of all the blood spilled, thousands jailed and exiled, all the stolen property?  Isn't the sad truth that the only Cubans who prospered from Castro’s revolution are those who left the island paradise? 

And Cuba isn't alone. What is the difference between the Russia of today and the Russia of the tsars?  Today's tsar is not a Romanov, but Putin.  The boyars no longer exist, but the life of an ordinary Russian is ruled equally badly by bureaucrats.  The capitalists are replaced by oligarchs.  Can anyone tell me how is the life of an ordinary Russian better than it would have been if the communists never happened?  Can anyone point out any accomplishment worthy of all the millions they murdered, jailed, and exiled, and the millions whose property they stole and lives they ruined? 

And how different is today's China from the China of the Manchu dynasty?  The great Qing emperor is gone, replaced by the latest head of the communist dynasty.  The mandarins are replaced by party bureaucrats.  Can anyone tell me how the life of an ordinary Chinese is better than it would have been if the communists had never happened?  Can anyone point out any accomplishment worthy of all the millions Mao murdered, jailed, and exiled, and the millions whose property he stole and lives he ruined?

Can anyone point out anything that could possibly justify the human costs of the march to a communist paradise in any country? 

How do we explain the accolades for dead Fidel coming from the left?  To understand it, we need to keep in mind a basic principle: for a leftist, truth is whatever benefits his cause, and whatever does not advance the leftist cause must be destroyed.  To a leftist, "revolutionary truth" is more important than reality, and the human costs of their activities are always acceptable price for the future paradise they will, eventually, build for us.

The truth is that under the system they say is based on selfishness, avarice, and greed, we do a pretty good job taking care of one another, while systems based on sharing and common property turn even prosperous countries into miserable, hungry prison camps.

The truth is that man, ever since he was expelled from Eden, has tried to create his own Paradise to show God he can do it better.  Each time he has tried, he has created another Hell on Earth.