This man should die!

[Homoerectus]

Mugabe could have been another Black African hero, like Mandela. Instead he has chosen the path of too many Black African leaders, Taylor of Liberia, Amin of Uganda and turned into a monster.

 

[Zingerific]

The Economist called him the first African fascist and compared him to that other war hero-cum-despot, Benito Mussolini.

Interesting. In what sense does the Economist use 'fascist'? How is Mugabe more of a fascist than, say, Idi Amin? Do they trace very close parallels to Il Duce?

 

[Corny]

^ you gotta be kidding me? You call what Mugabe does "standing up to Britain"? Are you in your right mind here?

 

[Corny]

Chosen by his people? You obviously have no clue on what's going on there ..

 

[kallipolis]

More likely Zimbabwe is a basket case, under the leadership of Africa's gift to its starving masses.

 

[kallipolis]

Mugabe said at the funeral of one of his former cabinet members that

I am still the Hitler of the time. This Hitler has only one objective, justice for his own people, sovereignty for his people, recognition of the independence of his people, and their right to their resources. If that is Hitler, then let me be a Hitler tenfold.

Mugabe has subverted democracy in his country by denying media organizations and people freedom of the press and free speech rights, respectively. Mugabe’s henchmen are reminiscent of Hitler’s brownshirts; they often kidnap, torture, and kill political dissidents. Mugabe’s soldiers were trained by North Korean elite troops in the early 1980s, which may be evidence as to why Mugabe is successful in retarding democracy in his country.

According to the World Health Organization, Zimbabwe, under Mugabe’s leadership, has the world’s lowest life expectancy—the median age of death for men is 37 years and 34 for women.

Luke Zunga, an official of the Zimbabwean Diaspora Forum, detailed the atrocities of the Mugabe regime in his book, Farm Invasions in Zimbabwe: Is Zimbabwe a Democracy?. From his book:

Thousands of men and women, children and elderly, were rounded up into interrogation camps where they were held for weeks. People died in these torture camps... Digging graves was a daily routine for the captives. Some of the dead were loaded into trucks to be dumped in local mine shafts. At [one] police camp... people were held in open cages spattered with blood and human waste from previous detainees. They were exposed to the wind, rain, and sun while in adjacent interrogation cells the screams and groans of those being tortured could be heard, day and night. It was a replication of the colonial regimes, but perpetrated at a level much worse, by a black government headed by Robert Mugabe.

 

[Glafna]

Hm. Aren't you the guy who thought it was ok to go depose Saddam, set up another government in Iraq, and leave, but complains over $10 billion tax credit available to college students who work for it?

Don't forget he's also one of the biggest Obama bashers around... and obviously at least partially proud to be an American under the Bushite administration.

 

[Glafna]

Mugabe is a fool, and if he doesn't step down peacefully, then his "people" will rise up against him.

No matter how much military might you have, you cannot stand against the will of an entire country, as well as the military faction(s) that would split off to try to seize control.

And of course there is the UN who are more then ready to kick Mugabe off his thrown and into a jail cell for the remainder of his pitiful life.

He COULD HAVE been a good ruler, but he succumbed to the corrupting power that comes with controlling a nation.

 

[AsianDream]

He is an African leader chosen by his people. NOT by Britain.

Africa is not Britain's playground.

Zimbabwe is just another example of the saying “All power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely”.

One strength of The USA constitution is the doctrine of “Separation of Powers” and in some ways this has been more important in retaining freedom there than the fact that the USA is nominally a democracy.

The big problem with the absolute power that Mugabe wields in Zimbabwe is that this is disastrously inefficient and corrupt.

The country used to be a major food exporter to Africa and the rest of the world – at one stage it used to produce (and export) three times the food needed to feed it’s own people – now it grows less than half the food it’s people need to survive.

The fact that Mugabe was democratically elected (at least the first time) is not a justification – Hitler was also democratically elected. Maybe if people are too dumb to chose a sensible leader they shouldn’t be allowed to.

Certainly British run Rhodesia was far more competently administered than Zimbabwe has ever been.

 

[Dobson73]

Seems to me that justmeeeee is now in hiding? He's very quiet.

 

[Kulindahr]

It is just cultural imperialism. The Western powers (Britain, US etc) are trying to impose their morals on Africa.

African have been killing Affrican for centuries. Now the white man wants to come to Africa and impose THEIR morals on Africa.

Britian and the US will not be happy until their is a McDonalds on every corner and all African killers are in jail.

Please keep Western morals in the West.

I call them human morals. They come from the fact that we're all, well, human, and that each of us owns himself/herself. If you own yourself, you have numerous rights which come from that -- but none of them extend to violating the identical rights that belong to anyone else because they, too, own themselves.

[Quoted post: Removed by Moderator]

I second that motion!

 

[AsianDream]

The biggest disgrace here is that for years, long before Iraq became a 'supposed' problem, he was allowed to destroy his country, kill his people, destroy the farms that fed them and more, while the US and UK decided to invade Iraq instead. Shame on us and the UN for allowing him to continue to do so.

I'd agree that Mugabe is just as bad a person as Sudam ever was.

But the invasion of Iraq was justified almost completely on the basis that they were producing weapons of Mass Destruction and supporting terrorism. Not that he was a tyrant that was impoverishing his own people.

As neither reason for invading Iraq turned out to be true - probably the USA and UK will not act again for a long time.

I think the people of Zimbabwe would be very glad to be rid of Mugabbe - but would they welcome a western invasion to fix their problems? - probably not - there would be enough people resisting the occupation to cause just as many problems as the USA now faces in Iraq.

 

[Kulindahr]

But since that was pure fiction concocted by the United States, what's stopping it from doing it again?

Uh, no it wasn't -- seven major nations' intelligence services, China included, believed Saddam was working on or had WMDs.
Yes, Cheney got the U.S. intel people to slant their info, but it wasn't "pure fiction". The only fiction involved was that there was any need to invade.

Moving into Zimbabwe to rid it of a dictator would have been a different matter. For a start it would be a matter of removing a bunch of armed thugs. Also, the people of Zimbabwe want a democratic country whereas Iraq is having democracy imposed upon it. The reason is clear, Iraq has oil Zimbabwe had food. However, it will not be long before the world will need countries like Zimbabwe to help feed it.

Good observation -- one especially important since food prices are climbing thanks to Bush's ethanol initiative.

 

[Chalchalero]

AND he kicked those white bastard farmers off African lands. Now his country is the breadbasket of Africa.

In this time of world famine, the world needs more people like him.

I'm just going to go ahead and repeat what has already been said here:

You obviously have no clue on what's going on there ..

 

[Chalchalero]

You're high! This man suppressed the vote in his own country...twice! This man's army went into the camp of his opponent, cut the feet and hand off his opponent's wife, threw her in a hut and set it on fire! This man should die! Preferably as horrific a death as his victims. That anyone would defend him is disgusting. What's more disgusting is that the world does nothing about it.

I fully agree with you. The man is a disgusting monster, and his demise will never be considered untimely by me and cannot come soon enough.

The reason no one does anything about him is because South Africa and the other African leaders still regard Mugabe as some sort of revolutionary leader. These people have prioritised the propaganda of the "anti colonialists" over the well being of Zimbabwe's 13 and a half million people.

The African Union has always maintained that the sovereignty of African nations must never be infringed upon, and have insisted that Zimbabwe is an African issue which must be dealt with by Africans. The Americans and Europeans have thus far supported this policy and have respectfully maintained their distance for the most part, which I believe is just as well.

The last time the Western nations decided to intervene in Zimbabwe was the US' Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act of 2001, which, along with similar economic sanctions by Britain and the EU have served to undermine Zimbabwe's economy without affecting the regime itself. (Cuba, anyone?)

When will the Americans ever learn????

While there are other factors contributing to the food shortages and hyperinflation in the country, these and similar sanctions have done nothing to dissuade Mugabe's totalitarian regime and everything to make the people of Zimbabwe even more miserable than before.

The only thing, in my opinion, that will save Zimbabwe ultimately will be the retirement (highly unlikely), arrest (far more preferable, but even less likely), or death () of Robert Mugabe.

 

[Chalchalero]

Maybe if people are too dumb to chose a sensible leader they shouldn’t be allowed to.

I agree, and have said as much on these threads before. (People didn't like that for some reason...)

 

[MrWright]

It is just cultural imperialism. The Western powers (Britain, US etc) are trying to impose their morals on Africa.

African have been killing Affrican for centuries. Now the white man wants to come to Africa and impose THEIR morals on Africa.

Britian and the US will not be happy until their is a McDonalds on every corner and all African killers are in jail.

Please keep Western morals in the West.

Not that I condone the forced cultural invasion of the western world but Mugabe is a murderer and the Zimbabwe issue hardly relates (at this point) to Britain. The pertinent issue is the fledgling attempts at democracy that have been crushed by Mugabe.

Also, on a side note. It may be noted that no two nations with a McDonalds have ever engaged in war (I believe, I'm re-checking I suppose I'll post when I'm sure - the source may be outdated).

 

[falconfan]

You are just upset that he is not Britain's puppet.

The days of Britain ruling the seas are over. It is about time someone stood up to Britain.

Yeah last person to stand up to Brittan was Hitler. Are you as proud of him?

 

[JackFTwist]

African have been killing Affrican for centuries.

unlike Europeans

who killed Europeans and Africans, traveling great distances and going to great length to do both for the economic self gain of it all

Mugabe is as vile as it gets but it is hardly for the heirs of Rhodesia's creators to tell Zimbabwe what to do - the history that culminated in Ian Smith mean Ian Smith's children have no moral authority to judge

 

[Spazer181]

The fact that Mugabe was democratically elected (at least the first time) is not a justification – Hitler was also democratically elected. Maybe if people are too dumb to chose a sensible leader they shouldn’t be allowed to.

I would point out, however, that he was voted down (likely with a majority - however such a result could not be supported by the 'Electoral Commission') in the most recent elections. He's now ramping up the violence in a desperate attempt to cling to power. As he becomes increasingly isolated, not only from the west, but also from his own neighbours and partners in the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) his regime will necessairly topple. I greatly admire the Zambian President for his efforts in attempting to make Mugabe "see sense." At the same time, I must admit to finding the response by President Thabo Mbeki (ANC, South Africa) to be lackluster and disgusting. It's almost as bad as his government's response to the AIDS crisis. It's time for the SADC to step up and resolve this issue - an African solution to the crisis.