Zimbabwe and Mugabe

[Dunenewt]

It seems Mr Mugabe has enough money to purchase some jet fighters from China, but not enough to support its once great education system.  It wouldn't take much more than an assasination to sort him out, so why do the West ignore him so much?

[ordos45]

I believe it's because the last time the Commonwealth (It is Commonwealth for Britain and colonies, correct?) censored him by booting him out of it he screamed that the British and others whites were all racists.  This coming from the charming fellow who imprisons white farmers for little to no reason.

[Dunenewt]

Well we should take action, although South Africa and Namibia are going the same way worryingly.

[ordos45]

Through military force by 'white' nations?  Given race and politics nothing is that simple.  An assassination like you said would work, but no one aside from Israel will admit to using assassinations...and even then there would have to be a great deal done to be sure someone who could actually ressurect the economy and social services would be in place, and not another dictator.

I suspect, remember this is only my humble opinion, that if anything kills him it will be old age, and he is getting up there isn't he?  Once he dies of natural causes, one can only hope that someone with the best interest of the people of Zimbabwe steps up to power.

[Dunenewt]

But there will be no-one left soon to oppose him as he is *removing* all forms of opposition.

[nemafakei]

Note: he has promised to retire, and won't stand at another election.

It's ridiculous that he is starving and ruining the entire nation, and no-one wants to lift a finger. It took two attempts to suspend him from the commonwealth, an action which, on its own, can do very little.

[Dunenewt]

But he has nominated a successor hasn't he?

[Edric O]

It seems Mr Mugabe has enough money to purchase some jet fighters from China, but not enough to support its once great education system.  It wouldn't take much more than an assasination to sort him out, so why do the West ignore him so much?

Because there's no oil in Zimbabwe.

If the international community had the will for it, there would be plenty of ways to deal with Mugabe. Leaving assasination aside, you could fund resistance movements and revolutionary cells. Considering the way Mugabe screwed up the social services and starved his people, it shouldn't be too hard to start a revolution or at least some major uprisings. Alternatively, a UN taskforce (commanded by generals from other African nations, to make it immune to any accusations of racism) could depose Mugabe. I don't object to military intervention as long as its done properly, for the right reasons, and under the command of the UN.

[nemafakei]

Mugabe is statving the country. If it doesn't count as a humanitarian crisis, it will soon - and when riots brak out, there'll be worse, more permanent damage than any UN action could ever do. So long as the replacement plan is well-planned, and the premise is clear, UN action seems the best course.

[ordos45]

Actually Edric, it wasn't too long ago that one of our "missing" aircraft was impounded by Mugabe with mercenaries on board...darn CIA can't do anything right anymore it seems.

[Dunenewt]

I think the problem is the international community does not want to seem racist, which is why they wont do anything.  As to Edric's point about African involvement.  I doubt many african nations would do anything as they do not have much of a military in most cases, and are starting to get as bad as Zimbabwe themselves.  A couple other countries near Zimbabwe have announced they will take land from white farmers by choice.  I fear South Africa isn't that much better from the news i hear about it.

[ordos45]

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/africa/07/02/tsvangirai.reut/index.html  It seems axe wielding thugs assaulted the head of the opposition party.

[Dunenewt]

Another reason to sort out Mugabe quickly.