Marvin Gandall wrote:
>
>
> Actually, I don't believe either the Cubans or the Venezuelans made any
> "mistakes" - at least not decisive ones - in how they respectively
> approached the question of power then and now,
The whole of Marvin's post is simply superb; I merely want to add a footnote here.
This whole vocabulary of mistakes" and "learning from mistakes" is dogmatic to the core -- it assumes that there exists a timeless formula for revolution, and that a "mistake" in revolution A (in a given place and time) provides a "lesson" for revolutioln B, in a quite different place and time. This is nonsense. What is the correct tactic for one revolution may well be fatal for anothr; what is a mistake in one country in one year may be the _only_ correct tactic in another country at another time. Lessons that go beyond stale truisms or rules of thumb are more apt to be disastrous than useful.
Carrol