Chavez writing Mugabe’s speeches?

Robert Mugabe celebrated Zimbabwe’s Independence Day surrounded by his army today and raged against the British Empire that was keeping the brother down (Yahoo/AP link);

The scene at the official 28th Independence Day celebration Friday had all the pomp of old, with air force jets sweeping overhead and Mugabe, bedecked in sash and medals, striding past soldiers at attention.

But any private observances by ordinary Zimbabweans were likely muted — prices for food, gasoline and drinks have more than doubled just in the past week amid an economic meltdown that has emptied store shelves and idled four of every five workers.

“There are black people who are putting prices up, but they are being used by the whites,” Mugabe said, promising to tighten laws that set prices and to crack down on — and possibly take over — businesses that break the rules.

Whites “want the people to starve so they think the government is wrong and they should remove it,” said Mugabe, who has ruled since independence in 1980 but who, according to independent monitors, failed to win re-election in the March 29 presidential vote.

But since Mugabe has succeeded in running out most of the white people by seizing their farms and demonizing them in the past, that argument might not have the same weight as it might have carried in 1980 when the apartheid government was turned over to Mugabe.

But every socialist needs a scapegoat. Hitler had the Jews, Stalin had the kulaks, Chavez has his oligarchy and Mugabe has the white devils, but since the white devils are dwindling in number, he has to blame Britain now too in order to make it seem plausible.

It’s real damn funny how just a scant few weeks ago, the Left was telling us how our ally in the war against terror in Pakistan, Musharraf, had to hold new elections soon. Yet they don’t have a word to say against (avowed communist) Mugabe who may or may not have been beaten in an election (since his government won’t release the results, we can be pretty certain which is the real answer).

Category: Foreign Policy, Politics