george w. bush, the johnny appleseed of freedom!

[rone]

Via Warren Ellis's Die Puny Humans journal:

Opposition groups in Zimbabwe say that government security forces have arrested and beaten hundreds of people following last week's widely observed general strike.

I look forward to a new military operation that will free the oppressed Zimbabweans from their ruthless and cruel leader. Because, hey, that's what we're all about!

Comments

Re: Call me Crazy.

[blarglefiend.livejournal.com]

The Zimbabwe/Mugabe situation is, as always, complicated. The EU and the British Commonwealth have been on the case for a fair while now: the EU with sanctions against Mugabe and his henchmen personally, and the Commonwealth, well, it's turned into a white vs. black bunfight.

(Incidentally, it's really shown just how impotent the Commonwealth is, just in case anyone had any doubts about that. It claims to stand for a set of values, but when it comes down to it the African members are more concerned that they not criticize a fellow African than that they uphold those values.)

I honestly don't see the problem with a state deciding that the actions of another state are not acceptable to it, and then taking some action with respect to the relationships between those two states -- e.g., economic sanctions, political lobbying, and so on. Invading is a whole different ballgame, though.

It would be nice to see a little more consistency. Iraq and Zimbabwe are hardly the only brutal dictatorships on the planet. They're just ones whose current rulers are not economically valuable to anyone else. The real lesson is that if you want to be a nasty dictator, you'd best make yourself useful to whoever are the current great powers.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Also, the North Korea lesson: get nukes fast so's the US won't fuck with you, but only shake its fist in impotent rage.