The Angry Moderate is furious. In fact, please indulge me whilst I take little detour to Crazytown. What has me so furious? Well, it's probably a story that most people in the U.S. have paid little notice. The story is the tragedy that has unfolded in Zimbabwe culminating in the recent fraudulent run-off elections that resulted in Robert Mugabe being sworn in to office for a sixth term, as President of a country that used to be the breadbasket of Africa and now he has run into the ground to the point where they cannot produce enough food to feed their own people and inflation is so out of control that it costs $6 Billion Zimbabwean dollars for a loaf of bread, if you can find one.
For those of you who have not been following, it's simply too long a story for me to sum up, but here is an excellent recap from the Washington Post from 7/5/08 that describes in greater detail what happened. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/04/AR2008070402771.html
The first principle of any government is to protect their own citizens. The purpose of democratic, republican government (emphasis on the little d and little r) is the protection of the minority from the tyranny of the majority. Zimbabwe, and also recently Burma (Myanmar)'s purposeful lack of warning and aiding their people from one of the biggest typhoons in their nations history, serve as stark examples of governments that have blatantly ignored these fundamental principles.
My answer to this is where most of you will probably think I've gone off the rails. If I were president, the first thing I would do is revoke the Executive Order that forbids the CIA or any government agency from actively or covertly participating in the assassination of a foreign leader.
Yes, I am perfectly aware that this was put into place precisely because the United States participated in some assassinations in the past that did more harm than good. Two examples would be, the assassination of Salvador Allende in Chile and the backing of the ruthless dictator Augusto Pinochet and our backing the coup that lead to the installation of the Shah of Iran, whose overthrow by the Iranian Revolution of 1979 we are still paying for.
But I am too disgusted to be swayed. The only answer for Zimbabwe is to assassinate Mugabe and his comrades. He will never relinquish power until he dies and then one of his cronies will assume power. Meanwhile, the African Union stands by and does nothing, mostly because many of its members have the same track record on elections and their own rule. Most disappointing is South Africa's Tabo Mbecki, who is supposed to be mediating, but instead does nothing. It is puzzling how quickly South African forgets the aid of pressure and sanctions from democratic western nations that helped end Apartheid and give Mr. Mbecki the opportunity to even serve as head of state.
Africa claims it can solve its own problems and does not want to be dictated to by the west, but more often they ignore their problems and use anti-colonialist rhetoric to hide behind their inaction. Equally, the U.N.'s effectiveness is strangled by China and Russia who hide behind the concept of self rule to avoid real sanctions. Once again, themselves not wanting to one day be held to account for their own actions toward their respective people. Ironically, China's response to the earthquake in the Sichuan Province was a shining example of how a government should respond when their people need them. They are no democracy, but still upheld the primary basic principle of government. This does not however make up for the anemic response by the international community to stand up to rogue governments who torture and murder their own people. The international framework has failed.
How many lives and dollars would have been saved by simply assassinating Saddam Hussein instead of invading Iraq? Yes, it's a total hypothetical, but still it bears thinking about.
I know there are plenty of reasons not to have a policy of active or covert assassination, but I am in no mood to be rational. Perhaps tomorrow.
3 comments:
Well, every one is entitled to go off the rails now and then. Being irrational purges the mind and soul.
However, I really can't go down the lane that some assassinations are justified; that would come under the column of judge & jury. Everything you wrote about Mugabe is true. He is a crazy man, a cruel tyrant. But we - especially we, a white western country - cannot promote assassination. We should not and cannot put in motion an assassination program.
Where do we draw the line? What got us into the mess in Iraq is we decided they needed regime change. Even though all the signals foretold there was NO social, economic or political support for regime change, that all those whispering "it's easy" were charlatans (Chalabi most notably), we invaded and as Powell so presciently predicted, we broke and and owned it.
I also believe there were several attempts to assassinate Saddam and they all failed and many people died for their participation. It's not easy putting together a coup - bloody or not.
Mugabe is an African problem. It needs to be solved by the African governments and people. For a western force to intervene would be disastrous folly. Good lord, America already has a huge world image to overcome. The last thing we need is to provoke an assassination attempt in Zimbabwe.
>$6 Billion Zimbabwean dollars for a loaf of bread
that was yesterday, today, 20 billion.
It is a bit alarming that Mbecki has been useless. Makes you think he admires the ruthlessness and needs watching himself.
Just saw "Last King of Scotland" and it made me think of Mugabe.
The movie's main character is a composite of real people. At one point they have this guy say , roughly, "this is Africa, leaders don't survive if they aren't ruthless"
the character is in a little too tight with Amin, and is temporarily compromised by it.
I'd hate to think it is true, that Mugabe can't survive otherwise.
Amin himself lived out his life in Saudi Arabia after being deposed. No doubt lived in wealth. Isn't that example good enough for Mugabe?
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