http://www.bloggernews.net/115328 High-quality English language analysis and editorial writing on the news. Sun, 06 Jul 2008 22:26:25 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.3 http://www.bloggernews.net/115328#comment-307137 N Cameron Sat, 26 Apr 2008 00:42:22 +0000 http://www.bloggernews.net/115328#comment-307137 Arming the opposition and inspiring them to take up arms in the hope of bludgeoning ZANU-PF into submission merely puts Zimbabwe on a new path to exactly where it stands today. Democracy is a political solution generated by peaceful balloting. Winning control through the barrel of a gun (as Mugabe did), merely hands the country to the man with the biggest and most powerful weaponry. It may remove the incumbent evil, but it sets the precedent for a system in which to attain power, one needs only to simply resort to violence. It is that very thing which the movement for democratic change is trying to avoid. They are a movement for democratic change, interested in building true democracy. They are not a power hungry gang of brutes willing to commit unspeakable evil to attain what they want. They have their hearts set on democracy, and for democracy to prevail they must win a democratic election, and if they do (as it appears they have) they must resort to negotiations and international pressure to bring about an acceptance of the election results from all sides. Mugabe has a history of fuzzying the boundary between his party and the nation, frequently referring to his and his parties opponents as treasonous criminals. Arming them would add fuel to his fire. It would provide him with sufficient justification to declare a state of emergency and procede to govern by decree for as long as he perceives a threat to HIS idea of the nation. That would bring about civil war, and possibly drag sub-saharan Africa into a massive regional conflict. The best way to bring about Zimbabwes democratic transformation is to isolate ZANU PF utterly. Boot them out of the UN, as was done to South Africa and Rhodesia, boot them out of the African Union, and boot them out of SADC. Extend the sanctions from targeted sanctions on a handfuil of bad guys to all out sanctions on the Nation, persuade its neighbours to simply close the borders, and to ban Zimbabwean aircraft from entering their airspace. The regime would crumble within a week. Arming the opposition and inspiring them to take up arms in the hope of bludgeoning ZANU-PF into submission merely puts Zimbabwe on a new path to exactly where it stands today.
Democracy is a political solution generated by peaceful balloting. Winning control through the barrel of a gun (as Mugabe did), merely hands the country to the man with the biggest and most powerful weaponry.
It may remove the incumbent evil, but it sets the precedent for a system in which to attain power, one needs only to simply resort to violence.
It is that very thing which the movement for democratic change is trying to avoid. They are a movement for democratic change, interested in building true democracy. They are not a power hungry gang of brutes willing to commit unspeakable evil to attain what they want.
They have their hearts set on democracy, and for democracy to prevail they must win a democratic election, and if they do (as it appears they have) they must resort to negotiations and international pressure to bring about an acceptance of the election results from all sides.
Mugabe has a history of fuzzying the boundary between his party and the nation, frequently referring to his and his parties opponents as treasonous criminals. Arming them would add fuel to his fire. It would provide him with sufficient justification to declare a state of emergency and procede to govern by decree for as long as he perceives a threat to HIS idea of the nation.
That would bring about civil war, and possibly drag sub-saharan Africa into a massive regional conflict.
The best way to bring about Zimbabwes democratic transformation is to isolate ZANU PF utterly. Boot them out of the UN, as was done to South Africa and Rhodesia, boot them out of the African Union, and boot them out of SADC. Extend the sanctions from targeted sanctions on a handfuil of bad guys to all out sanctions on the Nation, persuade its neighbours to simply close the borders, and to ban Zimbabwean aircraft from entering their airspace.
The regime would crumble within a week.

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