Mugabe: time to say goodbye?

[cupid_stunt]

Sure this one has been discussed at length before....

I'm not one for naive ramblings *cough* but when i read things like this I really do lose all sense of composure and political perspective. Not so much the slaughter of animals by the people because they're hungry, more the fact that they're so hungry they'll soon end up eating one another.

So is it time the world got all Rambo (4) on Mugabe's ass and put the country out of its misery by sending in a crack squad of the world's finest military personnel to simply take him out* or would a Mugabe-less Zimbabwe destabilise the entire African continent?

Over to you... yes YOU!

* read that any way you want

[Huguenot]

I think the act of deposing Mugabe would destabilise Africa.

Mugabe gets huge kudos across the continent because of his 'stand against colonialism', which we know is nonsense, but to uneducated Africans it seems heroic. To depose him would be to make a martyr of him, and give us a vast new continent jammed with racially motivated hatred of 'the west'.

In all honesty he's not acting alone, he's the clinically insane front-man for a vast engine of medieval tyrants.

[mockney piers]

Could not Africa take care of its own though?

Tanzania got rid of Amin after all (ok, he did attack them, but still a precedent).

[Tony.London Suburbs]

Idi Amin removed thousands of Ugandan Asians, circa 1973, including good friends of mine.

They were running the show so Idi and Co. took over the reins.

One year later Idi invited them all back...

[mockney piers]

Just about every asian kid I went to school with was a Ugandan emigre. Definitely one of his stupider moves.

Very reminiscent of the expulsion of the jews in Spain in 1492 as it goes.

Most moved to Naples, Portugal and Ottoman Empire where they served well as administrators, money lenders, artisans and even munitions manufacturers in their imperial rivalries...smart move!!

[Brendan]

Funny thing is that communal idiocy of British liberalism tolerated Mugabe for over 20 years before he suddenly became public enemy no.1 a few years back. Even during the gukurahundi, his government organised slaughter of innocents in Matabeleland, nothing was said because he was a post colonial leader, running a country in Africa and appeasing their misplaced sense of liberal guilt.

Like with so many sins against humanity in Africa reporting and criticising would have been too confusing for the British public who can understand Bad Colonials/Valiant Freedom Fighters but can?t come to terms with the brutality of African tribalism.

Anyway South Africa could depose him easily. They won?t though because he?s a Comrade.

[Brendan]

By "communal idiocy of British liberalism" I mean the Guardian.

[Jah Lush]

For all you northerners Mugabe spelt backwards is e-ba-gum.

[LegalEagle-ish]

I do a lot of Zimbawean asylum claims and something I've noticed from the country research I do is that the violence of the Mugabe regime has escalated in the past year and isn't just targetted at MDC supporters any more. Also him and his ministers use control of medical drugs and food as a weapon against non-ZANU-PF Zimbaweans with catastrophic consequences.

Cholera is killing thousands of people and a third of all Zimbabweans are HIV positive.

If somone doesn't do something soon, it will be as bad as Pol Pot in Campuchea.

But saying that, the west has been financially supporting the MDC for years so many other African countries support Mugabe in his view that the MDC are western, imperialsit puppets, so deciding who should do something, may be a problem and if not handled properly could inflame a continent that has endured more than it's fair share of confict already.

[Brendan]

It?s laughable that the ZANU PF call anyone imperialist puppets. It was largely the British government who installed them in power in the first place.

[buggie]

Have just returned from Africa and spent a few days in Zambia on the Zambezi so was right on the border. We were told and saw how Zimbabwe's loss was Zambia's gain - the displaced farmers have been welcomed into Zambia and are becoming successful, and as we went to the Victoria Falls we saw a queue of Zambian's waiting to go over the border to sell food/products on the black market (for US$'s - apparently the Zimbabwean currency isn't used at all).

What saddened me was meeting someone who lives in Harare and said life wasn't too bad as long as you weren't political - suppose is partly self preservation, but don't think I could stick my head in the sand about what was happening around me.

[LegalEagle-ish]

How the West loves to build up dictators and then switch alliegences when they don't behave!

[Brendan]

Well it was the old soviets who initially built up the ZANU PF. Britain just performed the last little bit of political back stabbing that secured their legitimacy to power.

[SaveShambo]

any right thinking individual looks at the current sitsuation and sees that he needs to go - however, we (UK) would be the last country to take on that job for the reaons outlined below. until South Africa takes a lead in dealing with him which is unlikely whilst they are still in their post-apartheid 're-balancing' he will alsways be seen as an anti colonial hero. Unpleasant as it will be to see, the best ooption would be for a foreign country (probably SA again) to offer him asylum, immunity and a load of cash to sit out the end of his days in untouchable luxury.

One of the problems is that the many 2nd and 3rd tier aparatchiks who have grown rich off of mugabes favour by oppressing the population are not important enough to be offered immunity elsewhere and will be turned upon once regime change occurs - consequently they work very hard to maintain the status quo as they need it to continue their comfortable lives. To a degree they are more of a problem than the man himself.

[Brendan]

The sad irony is that after he had gone about crushing any grass routes opposition Mugabe?s government actually provided a good standard of education for a lot of its population for a couple of decades. That could have been the basis for the country to move up to the next level economically.