AFTER FIDEL. With Fidel Castro temporarily ceding power to his brother Raul while he undergoes surgery, it's worth asking what happens when Fidel eventually dies. There often seems to be a sense in the United States that the regime will simply die with its founder, but there's no particular reason to believe that's the case. Jonah Goldberg hopes "this administration has a good plan to take advantage" of Castro's death if it happens. He doesn't "want any invasions or whatnot, but maybe some walking-around money and some threats would work nicely." In response, I'll just observe that it's a bad idea to make threats you're not prepared to carry through, so if it's a bad idea to launch "invasions or whatnot" -- and it is -- we also shouldn't threaten to invade or whatnot.
Meanwhile, it's worth noting that the CANF crowd has an agenda that goes beyond regime change in Havana and includes various deeply unrealistic demands for the return of property that the exiles lost when the pre-Castro dictatorship fell.
--Matthew Yglesias
