Friday, June 10, 2005
Invade Zimbabwe...
Since the brilliantly European idea of taking away private citizens' guns has pretty much given Mugabe impunity to do whatever he wants, there really isn't much recourse. Maybe the fact that Mugabe destroyed a mosque will move the international community to action. (And maybe the Kansas City Royals are just one trade away from being pennant contenders - ed.)
There isn't much that can be done internally. An attempted general strike collapsed quickly, because the people who would have had to lead it stayed quiet, because they would have quickly vanished had they spoken out. The common lament against "outside intervention" from the "we swear, we'll democratize Tuesday for a blind eye to our crackdowns today" crowd is that democracy cannot be imposed from without, but pressure for change must come from within. This is what's known, in geopolitical terms, as horseshit.
People want the power to choose their own leaders, and have a say in how the country is run. Dictators want to keep on dictating, leaving them at cross purposes. Dictators live by the golden rule - "He who has the gold, makes the rules," or more accurately, "he who steals the gold, buys guns with the gold, thenmakes the rules." As for the battle between a tired old autocracy, left behind by history and the bright ideals of young, peaceful patriots...well, just ask a Tiananmen Square protestor how that turns out, if you can find one. The simple truth is this:
There isn't much that can be done internally. An attempted general strike collapsed quickly, because the people who would have had to lead it stayed quiet, because they would have quickly vanished had they spoken out. The common lament against "outside intervention" from the "we swear, we'll democratize Tuesday for a blind eye to our crackdowns today" crowd is that democracy cannot be imposed from without, but pressure for change must come from within. This is what's known, in geopolitical terms, as horseshit.
People want the power to choose their own leaders, and have a say in how the country is run. Dictators want to keep on dictating, leaving them at cross purposes. Dictators live by the golden rule - "He who has the gold, makes the rules," or more accurately, "he who steals the gold, buys guns with the gold, thenmakes the rules." As for the battle between a tired old autocracy, left behind by history and the bright ideals of young, peaceful patriots...well, just ask a Tiananmen Square protestor how that turns out, if you can find one. The simple truth is this:
If the dictator is willing to paint the streets with blood, democracy is coming from without, or not at all.Mugabe is such a dictator. I'd be willing to try the sanctions thing again, if people think a John Bolton-less UN has the stones to see it through. (Unless they have World Series tickets and need to catch flights to Kansas City - ed.) Failing such a display of multinational resolve, the world is faced with two options: Either we sign off on removing Mugabe by force, or we've signed off on how he runs the country.
