The Irish commemorate Che Guevara on a special stamp
By The Editorial Board
The Wall Street Journal
October 9, 2017
Education often means relearning old lessons, which means fighting for historical fact against political mythologists. That’s especially true these days as millennials indulge a romantic view of socialism having never having seen its consequences. So it’s excruciating to see the nation of Ireland, a capitalist democracy that should know better, fall for the myth of Ernesto “Che” Guevara Lynch.
On Friday the Irish post office released a special stamp to mark the 50th anniversary of the death of Guevara, who became Fidel Castro’s right-hand man. The stamp features a black, white and red drawing of the Argentine-born medic and is accompanied by an envelope with a quote from Che’s father: “in my son’s veins flowed the blood of Irish rebels.”
We can understand how untutored Dublin undergrads might wear one of those T-shirts with Che’s face for social cachet in coffee shops. But on an Irish national stamp?
The struggle for Irish independence was about equality under the law, property rights and political self-determination. Guevara represents none of that. He hailed from an upper-middle-class family and became a Marxist revolutionary who murdered an unknown number of political opponents during and after the 1959 Cuban revolution.
Guevara was captured and shot by the Bolivian military in the Andes while attempting to spread the revolution. During the Cold War the global political left used a photo of his corpse to make him a martyr to the socialist cause, but his real legacy continues in the suffering and privation of the Cuban people. Irish democrats of all parties should be embarrassed.
EDITOR’S NOTE: I would expect nothing less from a country that has been siding with the Palestinians against Israel.
No comments:
Post a Comment