Vol. 1, No.

November 28, 2016

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Global Security Weekly.
Introduction
Three issues complete the
Geopolitical Insider.
First, trouble continues to boil in
South Africa. President Zuma is
beleaguered by corruption
scandals. His ruling African
National Party Congress Party still
supports him.
Second, the disunited European
Union does not have enough
problems. The talk about an EU
Army is finally out in the open, but
is there a chance of idle
speculation to ever become reality?

President Jacob Zuma of South

Africa and his ruling African
National Congress Party are mired
in corruption.
Meanwhile, the South African
economy is in peril with high
unemployment (highest since
2003) and declining GDP per capita
as politicians luxuriate.
The pressure on the Zuma
increased as three ministers from
his own Administration call for his
resignation, but he escaped yet
again accountability.
So far, the ruling ANC prefers to
keep Zuma in office despite its own
electoral trouncing in August 2016,
including losing Johannesburg.

Finally, we consider the storied and

stained legacy of the now deceased
tyrant Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz.

On November 2, an anticorruption body called for an

investigation of ties between the
Gupta Family and Zuma regarding
cabinet appointments.

Can President Zuma survive his

presidency?

Zuma denies any accusations of

influence-peddling, but his chances

to complete his second term till

2019 are in jeopardy as the ANC
weakens its support.
The South African president is not
new to questionable finances
during his term.
Just in April, Zuma apologized to
his citizens about a long-running
scandal involving government
monies (totaling $23 million) used
to upgrade a country estate.
Expect the embattled President
Zuma to muddle along and to fight
the anti-corruption charges while
his fellow citizens see their
conditions worsen.
An EU Army?
The Brexit vote has unleashed a
raft of changes inside the European
Union.
Once hidden agendas are now
exposed to sunlight.
France and Germany now no
longer need to deny plans for a
pan-European army, the so-called
EU military.
Speculation grew during the
summer after a leaked German

defense white paper outlined a

more muscular force .
The United Kingdom steadfastly
opposed an EU military force. The
fear is of a competing force to
NATO.
Ironically, Germany and France
now do not meet the 2%
requirement for funding NATO.
France and Germany rank #5 and
#9 respectfully in the world for
military strength.
France has the most capable,
complete military force on the
Continent.
However, Paris and Berlin will have
the funds for an EU Army?
The diversion of funds from NATO
could come at a time of an
increasingly aggressive Russia, a
growing belt of instability along
the southern Mediterranean rim,
and rising Islamism.
US President-elect Donald J.
Trump called for NATO members
to assume more costs of the
alliance while seemingly ignoring

globalsecuritymonitor.net Geopolitical Insider | 11/28/2016

the great military advantage the US

has to make the alliance work.
The president-elect must rethink
his campaign rhetoric, but if he
acts on his words it could provide a
stimulus to the EU Army project.
Practical problems plague a EU
Army.
A robust economy is necessary to
undergird military power.
The Eurozone mustered only 0.3%
GDP growth in Quarter III 2016.
Plus, five EU members officially
embrace neutrality and the
pseudo-constitutional Treaty of
Lisbon required unanimous votes
for defense actions.
Even if there was a fully-funded,
geared-up EU Army, it might stay
at its bases because of this
significant neutrality bloc.
The EU is fracturing with other
states possibly headed for the exit.
Its economy is sclerotic.
Talk of adding another
bureaucracy and layer of expenses
to an already overtaxed,

overburdened EU citizen to fund a

military that might not fight while
also defraying costs of bloated
social welfare systems seems a
bridge too far for the Euro-crats
who do not seem to be aware of the
peril of the EU project.
Fidel Castros Legacy
Fidel Castro was another patrician
revolutionary tyrant who had one
aim in mind rule Cuba with an
iron fist.
Somehow communist revolutions
never spring up from the
proletariat.
His fabled revolucin propelled
him into power in Cuba in 1959
after overthrowing the ruthless
dictator Fulgencio Batista.
Thus, one rightist dictator was
replaced by a leftist dictator in
Cuba and all was well by many who
shared his ideals.
Fidel was admired by the leftist
intellectual class around the world
till he last day and drew praise
from university students who were
never taught his true cunning,
deceit, and deadliness.

globalsecuritymonitor.net Geopolitical Insider | 11/28/2016

His communist ideals are absurd

failures and evidence abounds, not
only in Cuba, but wherever the
failed, rigid ideology has been
tried.
Fidel constructed such a socialist
paradise that over a million Cubans
risked their lives bypassing his
patrol boats, sharks, and swift
currents for freedom in Florida.
The vaunted Cuban health care
system did not suit Fidel during his
bout of sickness in 2006 when he
called up a Spanish surgeon to
survive.
The press today is full of headlines
about how he resisted the US for
his entire tenure as dictator of
Cuba when he could have been
swatted like a fly at any time.
As a Soviet client state, the US left
Fidel to stew on his prison paradise
island.
Indeed, without Soviet subsidies
throughout the Cold War, the farce
perpetrated on the Cuban people
by Fidel (using hunger as a
weapon, brute force, gulags, and a
secret police to curb resistance to

the insane plans for the country)

Cuba would have collapsed sooner.
When the Soviet Union itself
collapsed after US President
Reagan blew down that house of
cards, the special period left an
indelible scar on the prison island.
By luck, Hugo Chavez manipulated
Venezuela into the Cuban sphere
in Latin America and he handed
out charity in the form of oil
subsidies to again pay for the inane
ideas of El Comandante that have
driven Cuba to depravity and
despair.
The antique automobiles from the
1950s may be quaint for the
random tourist, but they are also a
reminder of the backwardness of
the regime in Havana that lords
over the people.
Now that Venezuelas 21st century
socialism has predictably nearly
bankrupted a once prosperous oil
country, Cuba needed to line up its
next host.
Some observers see the US, under
the misguided engagement of
Cuba by the US Obama

globalsecuritymonitor.net Geopolitical Insider | 11/28/2016

Administration, as the next host to

underwrite the continuing
economic disaster on the island.
Not one reform was requested nor
granted for formal US diplomatic
recognition. It was given for free.
Fidel betrayed the fabled Che
Guevara and many who wear those
shirts painted with the face of the
murdering Argentina leftist
firebrand probably have no idea.
In the end, Fidel Castro was an
anachronism despite his wistful
admirers to his last day.
Gone is the glow of la revolucin,
its ideals a mere fairy tale for the
gullible in Western countries who
never deigned themselves to live
under communist rule.
Fidel lived in hypocritical luxury as
El Comandante while his people
lived as mere serfs wretched, poor
beyond imagination, and in
constant danger for their lives
because of Fidels secret police,
gulag masters, or his ruinous
policies.

Missile Crisis), treachery (shooting

down the exile groups Brother to
Rescue Cessna in Florida Straits by
an advanced MiG-29 fighter in
1996), clever spymaster (Ana
Montes at DIA) and utter ruin for
Cuba after seizing the reins of
power.
The pain and suffering inflicted on
his own people and large fortune
the dictator, his family, and cronies
amassed were all for his glory
despite the fairy tale of
communism.
And no, history will not absolve
him of the death and destruction
he wrought on Cuba, Latin
America, and Africa.
The hope is that the passing of
Fidel Castro will cause a breeze of
freedom to stir on the prison island
and that the Castros and their
clique are shown the door.
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Fidel Castros deplorable legacy as

a tyrant is a trail of drama (Cuban
globalsecuritymonitor.net Geopolitical Insider | 11/28/2016