One of the most exasperating issues out there in the world of foreign policy today is what is still going on in Zimbabwe. The election that did not deliver acceptable results to the redoubtable Robert Mugabe and is now being re-run so that it does, seems to have been dragging along dishearteningly for almost longer than the U.S presidential primaries. In Mugabe, of course, we have a dictator who is doing his darnedest to subvert democratic processes in order to stay in power, terrorising his opponents and refusing to accept the voice of the people. I know that the armies of the oh-so-brave liberal interventionist West are still somewhat occupied in Iraq and Afghanistan, but surely the world can do better than this:
Britain and its international allies indicated yesterday they would urge South Africa to cut off electricity supplies to Zimbabwe if Mugabe rigged the June 27 presidential runoff to stay in power.
Plans are being drawn up to persuade Zimbabwe’s allies to mount an economic blockade and diplomats are considering a ban on the children of the elite going to school in Europe if Mugabe loses the election but refuses to step down.
From what I hear from my unofficial and entirely non-existent Downing Street sources, the next planned step for Prime Minister Gordon Brown in relation to the crisis in Zimbabwe is to threaten to pull Robert Mugabe’s hair. Likewise, the “increasingly hawkish” Bush Administration reportedly plans to thwack its fist into its palm in a menacing fashion from another continent and wait quietly for Mugabe to slink away; lest it entangle itself in another military debacle with just a few months remaining on the shot clock.
