It is simply inexcusable that the leader of the United States, the land of the free, some stalwarts of the mainstream media and even leaders of other nations of the free world have bought in to and espouse a revisionist view of Fidel Castro.

It is disgraceful that President Obama in his three paragraph statement on Castro’s death chose not to mention any of the horrific things Castro did. In failing to do so Obama effectively sanitized Castro’s many transgressions against his own people and those of many other countries.

Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s statement was even worse. Trudeau praised Castro for significant improvements to the education and healthcare of Cuba. Trudeau failed to note that the improved healthcare, while universal, is a dysfunctional system with long waiting lines and substandard care. And if the Cuban education system is so good, why do we never hear of scientific advances occurring in Cuba?

Still worse was Trudeau’s fairy tale reference to Castro’s “tremendous dedication and love for the Cuban people.” Was it Castro’s love that was responsible for thousands of extrajudicial executions and disappearances in Cuba? Or that condoned and encouraged torture? Or that left nearly 20 percent of Castro’s people to feel they had no choice but to flee Cuba into exile — with thousands dying in the effort?

This is shameful revisionist history at its worst. But some in mainstream media were just as bad.

BBC News described Castro as “one of the world’s most iconic leaders” — waiting until the fourth paragraph to mention critics saw him as a dictator. As if a man who allowed no free nor fair elections for fifty years, imprisoned dissenters, and completely controlled all the national media and installed his brother as his successor could possibly be seen as anything but a dictator.

The New York Times also gave short shrift to the tyrannical rule of Castro calling it political persecution. The Times focused more on Castro’s defiance of the United States without mentioning how Castro’s nationalization of Property owned by U.S. citizens and alliance with the Soviet Union was a large part of that “defiance.”

There has been much too much of this Pollyannaish revisionism of one of the world’s great evil-doers.

Castro was a liar and despot. He led a revolution in Cuba promising economic and political freedom and instead imposed the opposite — a dictatorial repressive communist regime.

Castro was the antithesis of America and what it stands for. He opposed freedom and liberty in all its forms. Instead Castro enslaved Cuba and made it a prison for its inhabitants. He allied himself with the evil empire that was the Soviet Union. And as a Soviet pawn Castro tried to spread his version of hell throughout the Western Hemisphere and into Africa.

By allowing the Soviets to base nuclear armed missiles in Cuba, Castro nearly caused a nuclear holocaust. I’m old enough to remember, with way too much clarity, being drilled to duck and cover with my classmates during the Cuban Missile Crisis. That may color my extremely negative view of Fidel Castro, who can only be called an evil doer of titanic proportions.

In addition to those already mentioned, Castro’s “accomplishments” also include:

• Sheltering fugitives from U.S. justice;
• Sponsoring terrorism wherever he could and allying himself with many of the worst dictators on earth;
• Strangling food production and impoverishing the vast majority of his people;
• Outlawing private enterprise and labor unions
• Limiting and censoring internet access;
• Trying to eradicate religion.

Thank heaven we had leaders that were diligent in working to keep Castro and his tyranny as contained as possible.

Fidel Castro was tyrannical dictator. Western media and leaders should label him so right out of the box instead of burying the truth beneath despicable and insidious revisionism.