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Originally Posted by kingcoffee

Latin America was in a very bad place in Che's time. He saw oppressive governments that favored the rich and ignored and tortured the poor. For some reason, Che saw Marxist socialism as a form of government that would even the score and give everyone, regardless of class, a reasonable living style. He was wrong of course about that because socialism/communism doesn't work. His heart was in the right place but his head wasn't. He bacame a militant guerilla because he had to. Not because he was a nut job who wanted to bring down any government. He became a guerilla because he wanted to bring down a shitty government. Unfortunately, after he and Castro brought down Batista, they set up an equally crappy government.

Che did a lot of good for people. He helped a great deal of people but he also harmed a great deal of people. He was a ruthless guerilla tactician and soldier who executed many people. Guevara had a hand in transporting Soviet missiles into Cuba which prompted the Cuban Missile Crisis. Guevara later stated that if the missiles were under Cuban control, they would have been fired at the USA.

So what we have here is a double-edged sword of a man. On one hand, he was a passionate revolutionary who cared very deeply for the people who could not stick up for themselves and fight the tyrants that opressed them. On the other hand, he was a violent brute who sought to end our (Democratic/American) way of life. I mean, seriously, he wanted to blow up America! That means that some of the people on this board might not be here if he had gotten his way. In some eyes Che is a revolutionary, similar to our own George Washington. In other eyes he is a socialist terrorist. The truth lies somehwere in the middle.

tsss! latin america is still that kind of place, but communism is no solution, as it only spreads poverty instead of wealth, and makes everyone dependent on "the tit of the government" (my translation), until the whole systems collapses with parasites, freeloaders, and political appointees. at least under capitalism i can choose how i die. and better service gets rewarded by the market (for the most part-- no system is perfect you know?). but anyway. social democracy is as left as i'd go-- when you have 5 people doing the job of 1 it's just stupid.

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oh, about che-- sure he had the balls to fight for what he believed; however what he believed was misguided (marxism is just as flaky as any other form of prophecy)