Vic Socotra

24 June 2008

Act Now

I was walking in London’s Portobello Road a couple years ago. It is the great flea-market of the Empire that was. A lovely day, bright and sunny, and I stopped at one of the shops to examine a commemorative mug emblazoned with the smiling face of Ian Smith, white leader of break-away Rhodesia. It celebrated ten years of minority rule, when the rich yield of crops made the country the bread-basket of Africa.

I did not buy it, though it certainly was a curiosity, and would have been more so now. Smith got a bad rap from history, but there was no swimming against the tide of history that was running then. Smith was a modest man, and no megalomaniac. He was committed to his nation, and stayed there even as the state spiraled into disaster.

Some of the decisions he made when Prime Minister were clearly disastrous, and there are those who say that it was his fault that what came later was so evil. Say what you want about him: the people had enough to eat, which is one of the most fundamental of human rights, and he stayed right to his bitter end.

The Times said this morning it is going to take more than words to save Zimbabwe. That is all I have, though, so at least let me make them plain.

Let’s go. Let’s take that evil man down. Let’s make his ominous words of warning about the big bad old colonial west come true.

Let’s show the thugs what real power is about. They have grown fat and arrogant while the lovely green land has withered in their trust. The fine tailored suits and the dazzling white shirts on the old man who is stealing the election should be replaced with prison denim.

Let’s do it now. The surge is over. There are special operations forces available, and we have the airlift to manage the crisis whether the regional powers like it or not. We have a Unified level Command that is supposed to do something. It is time to do it.

We will have to seize the Harare International Airfield first, which will be splendid start, since it is nearly 12,000 feet long, ready to accept the biggest of transports.

The elite troops that were trained by the North Koreans years ago are soft. The only threat they have faced is hungry mothers and their children who lived in hovels leveled on orders of Mugubwe’s Zanu-PF goons.

Death and despair and hunger are the legacy of our not caring, or caring too much about the tender sensibilities of the kleptocracies that flourished in the wreckage of what the West left behind.

We need to get over the fear of being perceived as the Old Colonials. We must enforce the message that murderers will not get a free pass in this world.

If this is the end of the American Century, then why not go out with a bang?

We must free Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change, and once we jail the old man, reschedule the free elections. We have to get sorghum and millet and cooking oil to the people so they can have the first decent meal in years.

We must hound the bogus War Veterans into the bush and if they dare turn and fight, wipe them from the face of the earth. The pious regional neighbors can deal with them on their own soil as payment for allowing the old man

Zimbabwe needs a conquering army, and then it needs a decent police force. This will not take a great deal of treasure or time. The people have already spoken of their desire for change, and that is precisely what they should get.

The 82nd Airborne and a Marine Expeditionary Force are exactly what the doctor ordered to rid the planet of this particular cancer.

Then we need to make a stop in the Sudan, and turn off that nonsense in Darfur. What is the old phrase?

With extreme prejudice. It is long past time.

Cleaning up two of the most egregious and genocidal home-grown regimes in the world would be a good thing indeed.

C’mon, Mr. Bush. You have six months before the latte-sipping Prius-driving mamby-pants do-gooders take over. You have a free pass for a couple little military adventures. You have already committed our young men and women to worse places, and they have sacrificed more than you will ever know.

Do something, damn it. And while you are at it, there are some idiots in Burma who need a very stern talking to. Mr. President, if you are not using the Fleet for something decent, would you mind if we borrowed it for a while?

Close Window