Newt Gingrich prepared to bomb Cuba-Fidel responds to "greatest competition of idiocy and ignorance"

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http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/newt-gingrich-prepared-to-bomb-cuba/story-e6frg6so-1226254677861

NEWT Gingrich was ahead in the rhetorical war among Republican presidential hopefuls on who could be toughest on Cuba's communist regime, suggesting yesterday that he would bomb the island if there were a popular uprising.

The former house speaker and his top rival, ex-Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, were engaged in heated campaigning in Florida days before Wednesday's Republican primary. And both were desperately wooing the state's large Cuban-American community, nearly a million strong.

Mr Gingrich was asked to explain comments that if elected, he would "not tolerate four more years of a Cuban dictatorship".

If the US planes bombed Libya, should they do the same with Cuba?

"If there was a genuine, legitimate uprising, we would, of course, be on the side of the people," Mr Gingrich told Spanish-language network Univision.

"In that sense, I don't see why Cuba should be sacrosanct, and we should say, 'Oh, don't do anything to hurt' - you know, we're very prepared to back people in Libya. We may end up backing people in Syria. But now Cuba? Hands off Cuba. That's baloney.


"People of Cuba deserve freedom."

The audience at the Miami venue where Univision held the interview broke into applause.

Former Cuban president Fidel Castro dismissed the tough talk. "The selection of a Republican candidate for the presidency of this globalised and expansive empire is . . . the greatest competition of idiocy and ignorance that has ever been heard," he wrote in Cuban media yesterday.