Pick Your Spots

Someone needs to tell President Bush to shut up.  His credibility has reached the point that if he told me that sticking a fork in my eye would be painful, I would have to seriously contemplate that eyes were actually immune to pain.

Bush is now stomping through Europe attending the NATO meetings and is actively getting in his own way, by opening his lying yap.  The two most contentious aspects of Bush’s goals would be getting more troops in order to secure Afghanistan, the place that actually had Al Qaeda, and getting the Eastern European countries Ukraine and Georgia -the country not the state- into NATO.

These are good things.  Getting troops into the area that has terrorists and actually was responsible for the training of hijackers is necessary and one of the more responsible aspects of leadership that Bush has, accidentally I am sure, come across.  But it comes across as he is an incompetent boob, that messed up Afghanistan by a premature invasion of Iraq.

The man who spurned advice, caution, and strategy is now asking for help to fix one of his many blunders.  Now I understand that Bush is used to dealing with an inept and partisan driven Congress that would give him whatever he wanted, but that is no longer his audience.

“The Uniter” is going to have to rely upon his ability to persuade and convince our allies that this the important fight of our times and that success is only achievable should we be united.  That of course would assume that Bush would have a personality transplant or be so doped up out of his mind that he becomes a decent human being.

The second aspect that he is fighting for is equally notable.   NATO was founded on the principle of providing Democracies within the sphere of Europe collective security.  To be sure that protection was against a militarily aggressive Soviet Union seeking to take advantage of post WWII Europe.

NATO has evolved with the times however and now provides collective security in an altogether sense.  It is important to note that political freedom is directly correlated with the level of security that the government faces.  Thus entry into NATO provides the necessary security blanket, that governments can allow the release of boundaries upon their citizens in order to achieve a more perfect type of democracy.

Even in our own history, when the fate of the Union has been threatened, rights of Americans have been infringed upon in order to maintain security of the state.   What Bush, of course, is failing to understand is the deep seeded historical feelings that exist between Russia and NATO, and the sentiments of Russian and its former Soviet Satellite States.

Politics is about give and take.  Bush can have his war, but he must pay for it – ok bad example.  Politics  should be about give and take.  Keeping with the topics Bushmust decide which is more important to the immediate interests of the United States, and tone down the rhetoric on the other one as an immediate crisis.

This would be especially true if the CITIZENS of the said countries are no where near a consensus on if joining NATO would be a good idea.  Since they are in the shadow of Russia they still have jobs, trade routes, family, WWII articles in common with mother Russia even if they hate her for all the abuse she handed out when they were growing up.

This would especially true of the Ukraine who had a great number of their troops be sent to Afghanistan when they were still part of the Soviet Union and got killed when Tom Hanks – Charlie Wilson- messed it all up by sending stinger missiles.

It comes off that Bush is expecting Eastern Europeans to bail him out of a mistake that hubris doesn’t win wars.  I will give him credit that it does win him elections, but then the military doesn’t have to write letters to families of soldiers killed in elections.  So Bush…Pick Your Spots

Hanging by a Moment

It is rare for me to hope that the part of humanity that is decent will touch people and make then turn against their initial urges and do the right thing.  What is troublesome to me is that I see the opportunity for the Mugabe Legacy to not be redeemed, but be less tarnished.

To hope that a cruel madman would voluntarily give up the power he has worked so hard, and slain so many to keep is absolutely foolish.  I can only assume that the pharmaceutical drugs that have been leached into our drinking water are to blame for this momentary lapse of my sanity.

I will attempt to preserve some sense of academic integrity, whatever that is, by saying that despite what he will do, this is a defining moment for Mugabe.  He is respected by many across Africa because of his fight against colonialism and to preserve the sovereignty of Independent African Countries.

He gained even more street cred with his obvious support for the Anti-Apartheid movement in South Africa.  His involvement is has a direct correlation with the current system/political parties being in power in South Africa, and is why they are so hesitant to criticize his regime.

Only Mugabe can know if he truly believed in these causes, or merely used them in order to gain the spotlight to raise his level of influence to ever reaching heights.  However just believing in something doesn’t make it work, kinda like Bush thinking that invading Islamic countries would not be protested by other Islamic countries.

The main fight between the Black Africans, and the White Africans was over equal opportunity.  In fact, one may look at this region in Africa and see possible outcomes that the United States could have faced.  Violence was advocated among some groups of African Americans in order to balance the violence that had been perpetrated against them.  Zimbabwe was not so lucky to have a Martin Luther King Jr. Figure in order to stem that tide of revenge.

Zimbabwe was known as the bread basket of Africa.  This was due to the enormous exports of products that came from the White African population that, through colonialism, tamed the land and became very wealthy.  With Mugabe’s rise to power, and using a distortion of democracy – it was voted that the land held by White Africans could be seized by their Black African Counterparts.

While Reverend Jeremiah Wright may see this as just retribution, the violence and corruption involved was the fundamental cause for the collapse of the Zimbabwean economy.  Mugabe gave these fertile lands to friends, family , and cronies who quickly allowed the land to fall into disrepair because of their ignorance of the trade of farming.

Inflation has risen on average 32% since, and 100,580% in 2008.  The average lifespan fell from 60 years to 35 years.  While Mugabe himself is 82.  He has fixed elections, intimidated and beaten opponents, executed rivals, and thrown Zimbabwe into vast pits of despair.

The one thing that he could not do is kill hope.  Much like other tyrants through history this elusive foe is difficult to kill.  Blades, bullets, torture, even executions seem to merely make hope weaker, but never fully die out.  So the people of Zimbabwe have allowed their hope to be voiced, that they turn the page of history and attempt to true reconciliation with their colonial past.

Mugabe’s moment is to step aside, and be remembered through propaganda as a man who loved his people and defended them against colonial aggression, and championed causes important to all Africans.  His presidential reign could be whitewashed as a man who lost his way, power is a tempting mistress and has many victims.   Mugabe could at this moment make this a chance to allow his legacy to be allowing democracy to be expressed in Zimbabwe.

The more likely scenario is that he will fix the election to allow himself to participate in a run off, and then allow himself to win a landslide victory, continuing the now all too tragic military coup upon his death in order to maintain the status quo – no matter how deadly that may be.

So the world stands with Zimbabwe wondering what the outcome will be – Hanging by a Moment