Published: July 01, 2008 06:43 pm            

McDONALD: Dictator and oppressor No. 1

“I wish to assure you that there can never be any return to the state of armed conflict which existed before our commitment to peace and the democratic process of election under the Lancaster House agreement(agreement ending civil war in 1979).”

— Robert Mugabe

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As we approach our Independence Day, reflect on what is happening to innocent people in Zimbabwe and cherish your freedoms in this country. As you reflect on that, think about how you do not face intimidation by election officials and members of the ruling party to vote a certain way.

As a matter of disclosure, I supported the Afghanistan invasion but did not support the Iraq invasion. Having said that, I would have supported an action in 1994 in Rwanda to stop the genocide of over 800,000 Tutsis by Hutu extremists. The same type of brutality is taking place in the nation of Zimbabwe. The United Nations has been reticent to take action just as it was in Rwanda and Sudan.

The country’s president, Robert Mugabe must go and in the glory days of the Central Intelligence Agency he would have already been gone. Mugabe is a thug and those that surround him and take his orders are also thugs. These thugs took the wife of one of Mugabe’s opponents and assaulted her, chopped off a hand and both feet, locked her in her home and set the house on fire.

In the 28 years Mugabe has been president of Zimbabwe the life expectancies of Zimbabweans has decreased from approximately 60 to 37. HIV/AIDs is rampant in the country. Mugabe’s government has targeted killings of rival tribes in Zimbabwe and has instituted land reforms that sought to redistribute wealth from white farmers to blacks in the country.

The United States and Zimbabwe have one thing in common. We are both former colonies of Great Britain. There the comparison ends. We have maintained our independence for 232 years and experienced one civil war about 80 years into our independence.

Zimbabwe has had one civil war that led to independence and a megalomaniac tyrant running the country since that time.

The United States has a free and fair presidential election every four years while Zimbabwe’s elections guarantee that Mugabe will be returned to the presidency.

Mugabe, as president of Zimbabwe, has an official residence and an official presidential plane. For that matter our president has the White House and Air Force One. However, while Air Force One has plush accommodations for our chief executive, Mugabe’s plane has two thrones where the first class cabin used to be for the president and his wife (40 years his junior).

Mugabe’s first wife, Sally Hayfron, died in 1992 from a chronic kidney ailment. Sally Mugabe was a trained teacher who asserted her position as an independent political activist and campaigner who was seen as Mugabe’s closest friend and adviser, and some critics suggest that Mugabe began to misrule Zimbabwe after her death

Mugabe married his former secretary, Grace Marufu, 40 years his junior and with whom he already had two children on Aug. 17, 1996. His wife is known sarcastically as “Gucci Grace” or “The First Shopper” in reference to her numerous, lavish European shopping sprees.

I do not advocate the United States taking a role in this action other than to encourage Great Britain through backchannels to send the SAS in to annihilate Robert Mugabe. I can’t hardly believe that I am saying this as a conservative Democrat, but this country cannot withstand further rule by this Thug in Chief. Britain, as the former colonial power, cannot negotiate with Mugabe as he has a vitriolic hate for the British.

This leaves the United Nations, that international body who has failed miserably to step up to the plate in such situations time after time. The UN is an international organization whose stated aims are to facilitate cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress and human rights issues. The UN must act to bring this rule to an end and it has to be through dialogue as an ouster, coup or assassination will spark a power vacuum and a bloody civil war.

Tim McDonald can be reached at timothy.mcdonald@agsfaculty.indwes.edu

        

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