I write this observation as an American citizen.I have worked in several countries on the Contyinent of Africa. The USA is having many crises all major ones any of which can cause its downfall.One gentleman Medoff has stolen 50Billion USDollars ,the governor of the state of Illionois is tied to a corruption scandal a.The USA should not be encouraging what amount to rhetoric that can destabalise the entire region.

South Africa...Your governance is good and you have populated your system of governing with men and women of integrity,for sight and compentance, make your own decisions about your regional conflicts.The US statesman who encouraged the neighbors to turn against Zimbabwe is not a man of good experience and Knowledge any problems that may result from your actions will leave you unsupported

well I do not know what you did in Africa and where your worked here but I too live here and sorry not all the men and women in power here have integrity or can be trusted. I would love to see the SADC and AU resolve this problem themselves but well there are issues in 3-5 countries now on the continent which Zim is taking a majority of the press here now.

If you have a clue who Mugabe is and what he has and still is doing then I know your comment would be different. People are dying of starvation and a cholera epidemic that is much bigger than being reported..

I agree that the US is far from perfect but I cannot place Meodoff in the same picture as with Mugabe...

Hhhmmm mm m ... my friend, thats very true that people, lots of them, are suffering and dying from cholera, hunger and HIV diseases ... but what has that to do with our Head of State as a an individual? You make it sound so personal! Surely our President has no more to do with the suffering of his people than Winston Churchill did in the last English war against the great Aryan race of Germany (1939-45)or the USA president in the muslim world. The other day, the UK police shot and killed, in cold blood, an unarmed man in the precinct of Guildford cathedral, the prime minister of great Britain was not even mentioned in the newspaper stories which followed the mishap.If that had happened in great Zim, all blame would have been placed on the shoulders of our president. l am sure our president is as much concerned about the welfare of all Zimbabweans. I am sorry that it appears that your problem is that you are not willing to accept leadership from fellow Africans. Even Tsvangirai is going to suffer from your lack of respect for your own. Of course there are going to be errors and mistakes, shortcomings and unfulfilled promises, still l would rather have a Tshabangu, Moyo or Gutu as preident of great zim than an non-african. l am not a racist at all. Some of my best friends are non-Africans. Thats the way of the world ... each country has their own as leaders eg UK, France, Russia, USA, Nigeria, Egypt etc. They do not trivialise their leaders.

Yes there is something the US can do. Even if the foray in Africa by previous adminstrations failed it is time to think the unthinkable.

Despite the disastrous end to Somalian humantarian effort and failure to save Rwanda from the genocide it is time for the US to act on behalf of the persecuted Africans living in murderous tyrannical states.

Clinton helped free the Balkans, Bush W has helped free Iraq, Obama should help free Africa by getting rid of sensless, mindless, and needless tyranny in Africa.

He could start from Sudan or Zimbabwe, it doesn't matter but the message has to be sent to the rest of African tyrants that the rest of world cannot stand by and watch the sensless human degradation and morass.

I know the shameless perpetrators of the wanton pogroms on the African continent will always scream neo-colonialism or racism, but they should rightly be ignored. The next adminstration come 2009 should act to stop the genocide in Darfur - even if it means invading Sudan, and effect regime change in Zimbabwe. It is not like it is as expensive as removing the Iraqi tyrant, Saddam Hussein or the Serbian tyrant, Slobodan Milosevic.

The only problem is that the US doesn't have real overarching geopolitical or economic interests in Africa and has financial crisis on its hands but this cleaning up of African tyranny has to and must be done, just it was done is Europe and the (Arab) Middle East.

Enough is enough.

I am a ZImbabwean.I can swear akapfunde above is not a Zimbabwean.Mugabe is NOT concerned about the welfare of Zimbabweans, period!!I now have to look for a job in South Africa and send food back home monthly, why?

Whats wrong with looking for a job in RSA? whats wrong with moving to another country for econmic reasons? Why should it be an issue for the daughters and sons of Great Zimbabwe to move around the world and settle wherever they chose ... especially the majaha and tsikombi of our nation? Western Europeans, the Britons and Irish in particular, have always moved elsewhere eg southern africa, north America and Australia. The second highest source of foreign currency for India is money repatriated by those in diaspora!!! Whats wrong with that? I am not ashamed of having lived in various countries ..USA, UK, Ireland, Malawi, Botswana, Mozambique and now I am, in my not so old age, moving to Richards Bay in the land of the ZULUs and hope to learn to khuluma isiSulu. Of course, I am as much a Zimbabwean as your good self, my son. The main difference between you and me is that l am emotionally mature. l do not wish death on those who do not see eye to eye with me. l do not curse or insult any one for holding a different opnion. Undoubtedly, l do support our President, the Honorable Robert Gabriel Mugabe. He is a good man ... so l maintain. But you may hold an entirely different opinion and yet l shall defend your right to say so provided you do not threaten me with physical violence. l have lived in Harare since 1949. l am an out and out Great Zimbabwean. Your problem is that you do not know when to avoid annoying a bigger boy. You upfront insults and 'upyours' at State agencies in a very personnal matter of fact. Then they start rubbing their truncheons into your face in retaliation. Why blame RMG when you had it coming. You took it upon yourself to invite trouble. That has nothing to do with RMG or democracy as defined by a school dictionary. Grow up.

Fisherperry from your previous postings on the site you clearly showed that you where Rhodesian Front which we now associate with hate filled Zanu PF. Your current comment while we know you are birds of the same feather with Zanu PF, does not help Zimbabweans. Kindly keep your hate within your circles ie Zanu PF.

fishperry, please give us all the name of this african country which is populated by men of integrity and honesty etc....I will move there tomorrow!!!

Fishperry, well said about the USA and it's strength. Clearly, Americans will survive and it is the American people who make it great. I do admire their voluntarism and patriotism...American patroitism is based on what is good for the country. I wish that Zimbabwean patriotism was based on what is good for Zimbabwe (good gov't, freedom, liberty, freeflow of media and business etc) Alas the new way of thinking by mainly Zanu-pf and cronies is what is good for me. Mugabe is no long interested in what is good for Zimbabwe, but for himself. If he truely was patriotic, Mugabe should have stepped down a decade or so ago. Patriotic Zimbabweans, Pan-Africanist etc should ouster Mugabe because that is what is good for the country!

This post was deleted because it contravenes AllAfrica's commenting guidelines.

Eating drinking and living like IMPERALISTS. wHY IS MORGAN GIVING THIS IDIOT UNTIL THE 1ST IF I WAS HIM I WOULD GIVE HIM 24HRS

Because MT is not only a tail of the REACTION, BUT A CERTIFIED WIMP, AND A MATCH FOR THE MAN OF THE HOUR---Cdr. MUGABE---HE certainly AIN'T.

Get it?

Cheers from the First Reflective Brigade in the City of TAKE NO CRAP FROM THE WEST: HARARE.

I'm sure that if your friends and family were abducted for standing for what they believe in, you would be a little WHIMP too.

I am not in the least surprised, not to mention perturbed by your parroting of the LIES of the REACTION.

MT IS A WIMP in esse. Politics only disclosed a preexisting MALADY: MALADY WIMPDOM.

Cheers from the City of Iron Backbones, HARARE.

Arrested not abducted. Say after me ... Aaa-rreee-steee-ddi. Good. Dont let your imagination carry you too far!!

This post was deleted because it contravenes AllAfrica's commenting guidelines.

Africans should think, act and talk like Africans. We should die fighting for Africa and not die selling Africa. I think this is what they call patriotism and without it we will not succeed as Africans or Zimbabweans.

If you are African and you think like an American or British, then there is something very wrong with you. Thinking like the British, or the Americans is a bigger problem for Africa and Zimbabwe in particular than what people realise. You hear a lot of Zimbabweans calling for help from the British and yet it no so long ago when we lost hundreds of thousands of our brothers and sisters trying to chase these imperialists away and now someone is asking them to come back. Zvimwe kudyisiwa mapondo.

It would actually be stupid and naive to think that the British left Zimbabwe in the first place. The mercenaries, the NGOs and other similar foreign organisations are all examples of masked British or rather western secrete service. A very good example is the Simon Mann's case.

Simon Mann, a former British commando (special forces officer) has been jailed for more than 34 years for leading an attempt to oust Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang Nguema. Sixty-six other suspected mercenaries were arrested with Mann when their plane was impounded in the capital, Harare, in March 2004 when it was found loaded with £100,000 worth of weapons and equipment. His lawyers said they had been on their way to the Democratic Republic of Congo to help secure diamond mines of which in actual fact they were trying to overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea in a coup d'éta. Speaking to Channel 4 News from the notorious Black Beach prison in Malabo, the capital of Equatorial Guinea, Mann said he had been the "manager, not the architect" of the plot. The question is; “who was the architect?” British and Spanish governments, and high ranking political figures, were named in the foiled coup plot. According to Mann, disgraced Tory (member of the Conservative Party) member Jeffrey Archer and EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson were also involved in the plot.

It's not surprising that Zimbabweans who work for these organisations would have problems with the government. This is simply because they are working for the enemy. The 'aid' provided by these organisations in the form of food and other necessities would very much be welcomed by the ordinary Zimbabweans who are suffering from the western imposed sanctions. These people do not know what they are paying for in return for that 'aid' because there is nothing for free. This is western politics, western democracy. Create a humanitarian crisis and then go and help to gain support from the masses in order change governments through “democracy”. Changing governments is not wrong but it should be for the right reasons

I would like to call on all Zimbabweans to wake up because we are not going to build Zimbabwe if we are still asleep. Zimbabwe was once sold for sugar please, please do not sell it again for sugar. If you fool me once shame on you but if you fool me twice shame on me.

Africans should think, act and talk like Africans. We should die fighting for Africa and not die selling Africa. I think this is what they call patriotism and without it we will not succeed as Africans or Zimbabweans.

If you are African and you think like an American or British, then there is something very wrong with you. Thinking like the British, or the Americans is a bigger problem for Africa and Zimbabwe in particular than what people realise. You hear a lot of Zimbabweans calling for help from the British and yet it no so long ago when we lost hundreds of thousands of our brothers and sisters trying to chase these imperialists away and now someone is asking them to come back. Zvimwe kudyisiwa mapondo.

It would actually be stupid and naive to think that the British left Zimbabwe in the first place. The mercenaries, the NGOs and other similar foreign organisations are all examples of masked British or rather western secrete service. A very good example is the Simon Mann's case.

Simon Mann, a former British commando (special forces officer) has been jailed for more than 34 years for leading an attempt to oust Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang Nguema. Sixty-six other suspected mercenaries were arrested with Mann when their plane was impounded in the capital, Harare, in March 2004 when it was found loaded with £100,000 worth of weapons and equipment. His lawyers said they had been on their way to the Democratic Republic of Congo to help secure diamond mines of which in actual fact they were trying to overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea in a coup d'éta. Speaking to Channel 4 News from the notorious Black Beach prison in Malabo, the capital of Equatorial Guinea, Mann said he had been the "manager, not the architect" of the plot. The question is; “who was the architect?” British and Spanish governments, and high ranking political figures, were named in the foiled coup plot. According to Mann, disgraced Tory (member of the Conservative Party) member Jeffrey Archer and EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson were also involved in the plot.

It's not surprising that Zimbabweans who work for these organisations would have problems with the government. This is simply because they are working for the enemy. The 'aid' provided by these organisations in the form of food and other necessities would very much be welcomed by the ordinary Zimbabweans who are suffering from the western imposed sanctions. These people do not know what they are paying for in return for that 'aid' because there is nothing for free. This is western politics, western democracy. Create a humanitarian crisis and then go and help to gain support from the masses in order change governments through “democracy”. Changing governments is not wrong but it should be for the right reasons

I would like to call on all Zimbabweans to wake up because we are not going to build Zimbabwe if we are still asleep. Zimbabwe was once sold for sugar please, please do not sell it again for sugar. If you fool me once shame on you but if you fool me twice shame on me.

Surely this kind of stance is not going to help the country any time soon. US and Uk are preoccupied with regime change than to give the September 15 agreement a chance to be implemented. This does not help Mt either because the African countries whose support is critically needed might become incomfortable and this will only worsen things for Zimbabwe. Unless if MT has decided to pull out and the strategy has changed.

Time is up for Robert Mugabe. Everybody knows when their time has come, so he he must be aware that his time is now. If he wants to be remembered well as the founder of his beloved nation, he must go now and let other people take the responsibility of sorting out the terrible mess the country is in.

Regarding Zimbabwe, Mugabe, cholera, and nearly anything else you can say about the country; who cares? Who is to say anything negative about this situation when most African countries approve of what's going on. When SA, SADC, and the AU say everything is OK. Mugabe was absolutely correct the other day when he said that African leaders were afraid of him, that they couldn't stand up to him. African leaders don't have the backbone to stand up to Mugabe. Lets be realistic, I don't live in Africa, what happens in Zimbabwe has little or no affect on me. Thousands of African dying from easily preventable cholera is not a threat to me. That people in Zimbabwe can't buy food again has no affect on me, I can buy all the food I can eat. But for the people of Zimbabwe there is absolutely nothing I can do that will make any difference. Perhaps you might say that I not that nice a person. In the end who is worse, me or the African leadership? I can't to anything to help, African leadership won't do anything to help!

What a big headed loud mouthed Mugabe is for a man of his age and supposedly education

We don't give a rat's tail what the REACTION 'thinks.'

Cheers from the City of HUNTERS WITHOUT A COUGH, HARARE

"J-hollow............let's come out to play"............

If you want to argue, let's argue facts! Despite the fake words you use in your posts, you never seem to find the room in them to post FACTS!

As I posted previously, J-hollow answers a post with name-calling, he never actually gets around to disputing the actual FACTS when it comes to Zimbabwe, does he, he just goes on spouting his invective or hatred to any poster who accuses ZANU-PF/Mugabe of malfeasance..........

J-hollow - like the other defenders of the ZANU-PF/Mugabe regime cannot actually explain the factual shortcomings of the government of ZANU-PF/Mugabe! If anyone posts here suggesting a new era or "different path" in Zimbabwe (according to people like J-hollow), we must be "Rhoadies" or otherwise racist.........

Now once again J-hollow (for your posts are as empty as your intellect): Answer all of us how the "reign" of ZANU-PF/Mugabe has been good for Zimbabwe!

FACT: Life expectancy in Zimbabwe is lower now under the "stewardship" of ZANU-PF than it was under the racist regime of Ian Smith!

FACT: Schools are now closed, no children in ZImbabwe are being properly educated. Under the racist regime of Iam Smith, the schools remained open! Even Comrade Bob was able to continue his studies while in prison!

FACT: Zimbabwe is suffering from an epidemic of cholera, which is an easily treatable disease throughout the rest of the world - what is ZANU-PF/Mugabe's excuse? Didn't Comrade Bob say "We have arrested cholera in Zimbabwe"? If only ZANU-PF "arrested cholera as well as he "arrested" his political opponents......

FACT: Under the racist regime of Ian Smith, Hospitals were open and provided treatment to ALL Zimbabweans! FACT: Zimbabwe is suffering under unimagineable inflation! Inflation runs so rampant that bank's computers cannot keep up with it! Didn't "Comrade" Gono lop off 9 or 10 zeroes of the national currency only several months ago? So, logically, doesn't Zimbabwe's current currency represent "18" zeroes? Yet "Comrade" Gono continues to print money?

FACT: You have begun to characterize the actions of ZANU-PF/Mugabe on these boards as "WE" (just like TAK did). Once again, I thank you for "outing" yourself as a ZANU-PF troll on this board. I did not have to do it, you have done it yourself!

Again, I would ask the rest of us here that look forward to a future Zimbabwe without cretins like J-hollow to ignore posters like him - he is clearly a CIO or JOC troll on this board!

For the rest of us - I am not a supporter of either faction of MDC. I am not a Zimbabwean, and I have never been to Zimbabwe! I have no ancestors here in the U.S. who ever held or profited by slavery (my family came to the U.S. in the 1890's). I hold NO investments related to financial dealings in Zimbabwe and have instructed my broker to make sure my investments do not include a Zimbabwean-exposed company - as ALL of my family has instructed their brokers!

I have "no dog in this hunt" meaning I am simply an uninterested American who sees injustice for what it is! Don't even try the "Iraq" argument with me because I opposed the war to begin with AND there have been fewer deaths in Iraq under occupation then there were under Saddam Hussein's regime (see mass graves!)! Just like as was the case with the end of apartheid, concerned citizens the world over can (and should!) denounce injustice wherever it rears it's ugly head. Simply because we oppose the brutal regime of ZANU-PF/Mugabe does NOT make us racists, colonizers or "Rhoadies"!

ZANU-PF/Mugabe is an organzation (NOT a Government) that took it's mantle as a liberation party and turned it into a yoke for ALL Zimbabweans to labor under. The truth of the matter is in the FACTS J-hollow, not that you ever come close to using FACTS in your posts!

I argue that the future of Zimbabwe requires a government that actually improves the daily lives of ALL Zimbabweans - even those who have sworn allegience to and profited by the government of ZANU-PF/Mugabe! Unlike the daily yelps from the Herald about the "government doing this" and the "government doing that", what have they actually DONE to improve the lives of the people of Zimbabwe? Answer? NOTHING!

People like J-hollow fill their posts with invective and seek to denounce their opponents as "Rhoadies" and racists. I am neither, I will not allow these boards to be cluttered with hate and ignorance. When I post, I post FACTS!

J-hollow does neither of these things. He never posts about the "great" accomplishments of the "great fighter" (small G, small F) because ZANU-PF/Mugabe has actually accomplished nothing great. They did not "liberate" Zimbabwe - PF-ZAPU had something to do with that! Aside from that, they have presided over a decline in living standards, life expectancy, education and healthcare - what sort of bill of indictment do you need to reach people like J-hollow?

The FACTS are J-hollow: 85% Unemployment; 231 MILLION per cent inflation (unofficially it is "quadrillions"); 30% of the population has left the country; Schools are closed for lack of instructors AND lack of clean drinkng water; Hospitals are closed for lack of supplies & wages; the Police arrest people and then deny they have arrested them - then, when they are confronted with that lie, they then make up another.

J-hollow: You did not respond in your post to a single accusation I made in my post as an indictment of ZANU-PF/Mugabe's "stewardship" of Zimbabwe in the post-liberation era.

Your supposedly "superior intellect" is perhaps confused when confronted with FACTS? You make up words as if your English correspondence course required you to make up words for a vocabulary test! I don't need a spelling or grammar lessons from an imbicile like you!

I deal with FACTS! I have never seen one of your posts ever attempt to defend the actual FACTUAL record of ZANU-PF/Mugabe because you can't!

Let's hope, that when the final blow falls, you will either be out of the country (as I suspect you already are) or you will be shown true mercy, as befits Zimbabwe, by not putting your back against the wall with Comrade Bob himself!

In a battle of ideals, the FACTS always win out - despite the errors in spelling and grammar. The FACTS say that ZANU-PF/Mugabe has FAILED to provide the people of Zimbabwe with it's proper standard of living, Education, healthcare, clean water, rule of law, free press, free elections, etc.. Any aimless rhetorical flourishes you add to the conversation are a mere distraction from the FACT of what ZANU-PF/Mugabe has caused the current Zimbabwe to become!

I argue about FACTS! You just wallow in the mud and muck of name-calling like a pig in mud! In the end, the truth always prevails! Someone like J-hollow always ends up like a Goebbels, a Molotov or Beria, a "Chemical Ali" or "Bagdad Bob", an Erick Honnecker or Nicholas Ceaucesceu! I argue with the truth of facts! All you ever do is call people names! You must be one of those whose backs are truly "up against the wall"!

If you want to argue facts, then let's argue facts! If you want to hide behind fake obscure words accusing your opponents, then you have shown yourself to be the coward we all think you to be!

Salutorious greetings from the cholera-free, schools-are-open, hospitals-are-staffed, we-just-elected-a-black-man-president, currency-is-not-worthless, press-is-free-to-insult-the-Government, inflation-is-only-3-4%, 30% of-our-population-has-not-left-the-country, elections-are-free-and-fair, nation of the United States!

"Total Empowerment!" - how free do you (Zimbabwe) really feel?

J-hollow: How empty do you feel? Answer me with FACTS, not abuse.................

"30% of your population have not left your country, USA" ... you say. Actually you are a European. You moved to the USA to take advantage of the infra structure built on the backs of the millions of Africans enslaved and turned into beasts of burden by you Europeans....not to mention the slaughter of native Americans. In the early 1980s l lived in the USA and l moved a lot around rural areas and small towns of the country, what surprised me was the psychological damage that had , and is being still,inflicted on American Africans. I accompanied on visits by people who had incarcerated relations in USA prisons, what strike me was the high proportion of American Africans in jails ..can you explain why this so .. as well as the fact that lots of American Africas have been and are on death row. Please dont turn your patronising attitude into an insult .. did you ever lived in Rhodesia as an African. NO! So you do not know what you are talking about. Please move to other issues like the millions of Iraqs who have been slaughtered, displaced and have their lives turned upside down by America. Are you serious when you praise Bush and his mafia operations in Iraq? Would you love some one who sends Cruise missilles and use scatter bomblets on your villages. You would not!!! So why do you think you were doing Iraqs a favour by slaughtering whole villages in the name of "democracy" ... another name for USA imperialism??? Think of the millions of westerners who have become filthy rich from Iraq oil etc. Before l went to USA l thought that no American has human feelings and l was surprised to see people in a white church, where l was a guest, crying on hearing that aUSA jumbo jet had been shot down over Korea or somewhere in the far east. I couldnt believe my eyes. I grew up with pictures of USA carpet bombings in Vietnam, Laos and Kampuchea. Thank goodness there are still USA citizens who still have feelings and would not their collection of germs to gain advantage over the rest of the world.

J-hollow: This is "New Year's" so I should be more magnanimous.......but I resolve to take the folllowing actions: I've thought about it some more and I've decided (as a New Year's resolution):

Tomorrow I will wake, and I will gather the local paper that sees fit to insult the President-elect Obama. or George W. Bush.

I will sit on my toilet and read the paper (which is NOT. published by the government!)...... when I am done, I will flush the toilet, and it will work! I will not worry whether this action causes thousands to contend wih my effluent.....

I will turn on the tap in my bathroom and recieve clean/pure drinking water out of my tap.........

I will take my children to school, where the teachers are paid, and the instruction is free......... and the drinking water is clean!

I will call my doctor, and will schedule an appointment after which I can be provided with any medications I require........... AND I will NOT be required to pay the bill in foreign currency.....

I will call myCongressman/woman to register my comlpaints as to the current state of service delivery (i.e. clean water, sanitation, education and healthcare)......

I will register my complaints with non-governmental institutions like Justine Mukoku's, I will not lay awake at night wondering if the CIO or JOC has recorded my address or might come in the night to arrest me for "seditious conduct"..........

I will go to the bank, or the supermarket, where they allow me free access of my saving via electronic bank-transfer........ No lines, just the inconvenience of pnching in my PIN code.... all of my money, available at the touch of a button....

I will go to the market, where the prices have not changed for some 2 years, to purchase my groceries........ I will find bread, beef, pork, lamb, and chicken for sale at much the same prices as were available several years ago

Is ANY of this beyond the abilities of ZANU-PF/Mugabe to provide their citizens? I would hope not, but the TRUTH is a far more bitter pill to swallow......

ZANU-PF/Mugabe can provide NONE of these coveniences to their people! It is a sign of their abject failure to provide for the people of Zimbabwe!

If you want to criticize me, come at me with FACTS! For the rest of us, we are DONE with you! You defend the indefensible! You make excuses for the inexcusable!

You, like your ZANU-PF subscribers only hear the truth when it is the truth you want to hear! Zimbabwe is in collapse, and it is the fault of ZANU-PF/Mugabe that Zimbabwe has come to it's current state!

When you want to argue FACTS, you know where to find me............If you want to continue to spout your Stalinist-hate filled drivel, I will combat you. The Nazi's sarcastically posted above the gates to the concentraton camps "work shall set you free", but here on these boards, the "truth shall set YOU free" (unless you are a ZANU-PF capo............)

Cheers from the cholera-free, schools-are-open, hospitals-are-staffed, we-just-elected-a-black-man-president, currency-is-not-worthless, press-is-free-to-insult-the-Government, inflation-is-only-3-4%, 30% of-our-population-has-not-left-the-country, elections-are-free-and-fair, nation of the United States!

"Total Empowerment!" to starve, be beaten, tortured, or murdered under the regime of ZANU-PF/Mugabe

Yes there is something the US can do. Even if the foray in Africa by previous adminstrations failed it is time to think the unthinkable.

Despite the disastrous end to Somalian humantarian effort and failure to save Rwanda from the genocide it is time for the US to act on behalf of the persecuted Africans living in murderous tyrannical states.

Clinton helped free the Balkans, Bush W has helped free Iraq, Obama should help free Africa by getting rid of sensless and mindless tyranny in Africa.

He could start from Sudan or Zimbabwe, it doesn't matter but the message has to be sent to the rest of African tyrants that the rest of world cannot stand by and watch the sensless human degradation and morass.

I know the shameless perpetrators of the wanton pogroms on the African continent will always scream neo-colonialism or racism, but they should rightly be ignored. The next adminstration come 2009 should act to stop the genocide in Darfur - even if it means invading Sudan, and effect regime change in Zimbabwe. It is not like it is as expensive as removing the Iraqi tyrant, Saddam Hussein or the Serbian tyrant, Slobodan Milosevic.

The only problem is that the US doesn't have real overarching geopolitical or economic interests in Africa and has financial crisis on its hands but this cleaning up of African tyranny has to and must be done, just it was done is Europe and the (Arab) Middle East.

Enough is enough.

NO YOU CAN'T. PERIOD.

Your unwarranted assumptions make you an esy prey of neo-con non-think: how about regime change in the corrupt, medieval House of Saud? Arabs are free of "arab tyranny"? I say seven-up.

AFRICA FOR THE AFRICANS. First and last.

Why, by the way, analogize Africa to the Balkans or Irag?

Do you not know that Africa is a continent, and not, as the empty vessel, Pallin, 'thought', a "country"?

Let me lay it straight and square, dude:

"Yes we can" mantra ain't 'gon work in the inchoate Land of AFRICAN DIGNITY: ZIMBABWE.

Yes, it worked against geezer racists in the US, but never shall it even wiggle in Zimbabwe.

YES WE CAN, MY FOOT. A Yankee thing, it is---and, need I say: shall re-main.

ZIMBABWE SHALL BE THE LAND WHERE POWERS GREAT COME TO EX-PIRE.

Cheers from the City of HECK NO YOU CAN'T, HARARE.

Jabbajaw, I see you are still in denial.In Zimbabwe the only "chuckle, chuckle" GREAT POWER?......THAT CAME TO ZIMBABWE TO EX-PIRE!is Mugga. And it only took 30 years to turn it into a wasteland.OHH ..My Hero!!!

This post was deleted because it contravenes AllAfrica's commenting guidelines.

Did Africa bail out Europe during the Holocaust? Did Africa bail out the slaves in the United States? No.

Let them make their mistakes, just like we've been allowed to make ours. The West has tried to keep Africa in perpetual child-like state by not allowing them to man up and fix their own problems. Africa doesn't need a you or the United States to be their hero -- they just need you to let them run their own countries. Every time the West intervenes, Africa just ends up in a worse state than they were already in because the West doesn't "help" because it's the right thing to do -- they intervene for their own personal gain.

So, d_bokk, what you are saying is that if you could go back in time, and stop the Holocaust, you would not, if you could go back in time and stop the slave trade, you would not. Thats truely disgraceful.

Sometimes I wonder myself. The US took the pledge to "never again" allow another Holocaust, and instead of receiving accolades by nipping another would-be Hilter in the bud before he took over Saudi Arabia, we are now being told that our war against him was "illegal" and "immoral."

If the Allies had moved against Hitler before Hitler implemented the "Final Solution," then there would have been no Holocaust... but there would also have been an entire world that would insist that Hitler never really intended to carry out a Holocaust, and the Allies had no right to "illegally" attack Germany just a few years after we destroyed Kaiser Wilhelm's armies.

Hindsight is 20/20. Sometimes you must let the Holocaust take place, because it's the only way to make anyone realize a Holocaust *could* take place.

The problem with Africa though is that you dont have to look very far to be reminded that genocide is possible. I'd have no problem with Mugabe being taken out. As it would be hard to argue that it wouldnt benefit the masses in Zimbabwe. There doesnt need to be any land ownership changes. Just remove the corruption and instate law and order, ie remove abductions, rapes, beatings and murders of opposition supporters, ensure aid is distributed freely to all, irrelevant of who they support, that kind of thing. Under Mugabe, can anyone say this can be guaranteed?

Sadly, you are not a nation. Nor are you an army, a corporation, or even a group of well-intentioned activists. You are one person, an individual, and against the foolishness of large and organized groups, there is nothing any one person can do, no matter what the cinemas would have you believe.

This is as true for you as it is for me, and for Robert Mugabe. Take out Mugabe? Mugabe didn't wreck Zimbabwe by himself, any more than you could save it by yourself. He is simply the spokesperson for a very large and extremely well-armed organization, and taking him out would only trigger a massive retaliation by this organization, the replacement of Mugabe with a new and even more insane madman, and still more suffering for the people of Zimbabwe.

Africans should think, act and talk like Africans. We should die fighting for Africa and not die selling Africa. I think this is what they call patriotism and without it we will not succeed as Africans or Zimbabweans.

If you are African and you think like an American or British, then there is something very wrong with you. Thinking like the British, or the Americans is a bigger problem for Africa and Zimbabwe in particular than what people realise. You hear a lot of Zimbabweans calling for help from the British and yet it no so long ago when we lost hundreds of thousands of our brothers and sisters trying to chase these imperialists away and now someone is asking them to come back. Zvimwe kudyisiwa mapondo.

It would actually be stupid and naive to think that the British left Zimbabwe in the first place. The mercenaries, the NGOs and other similar foreign organisations are all examples of masked British or rather western secrete service. A very good example is the Simon Mann's case.

Simon Mann, a former British commando (special forces officer) has been jailed for more than 34 years for leading an attempt to oust Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang Nguema. Sixty-six other suspected mercenaries were arrested with Mann when their plane was impounded in the capital, Harare, in March 2004 when it was found loaded with £100,000 worth of weapons and equipment. His lawyers said they had been on their way to the Democratic Republic of Congo to help secure diamond mines of which in actual fact they were trying to overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea in a coup d'éta. Speaking to Channel 4 News from the notorious Black Beach prison in Malabo, the capital of Equatorial Guinea, Mann said he had been the "manager, not the architect" of the plot. The question is; “who was the architect?” British and Spanish governments, and high ranking political figures, were named in the foiled coup plot. According to Mann, disgraced Tory (member of the Conservative Party) member Jeffrey Archer and EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson were also involved in the plot.

It's not surprising that Zimbabweans who work for these organisations would have problems with the government. This is simply because they are working for the enemy. The 'aid' provided by these organisations in the form of food and other necessities would very much be welcomed by the ordinary Zimbabweans who are suffering from the western imposed sanctions. These people do not know what they are paying for in return for that 'aid' because there is nothing for free. This is western politics, western democracy. Create a humanitarian crisis and then go and help to gain support from the masses in order change governments through “democracy”. Changing governments is not wrong but it should be for the right reasons

I would like to call on all Zimbabweans to wake up because we are not going to build Zimbabwe if we are still asleep. Zimbabwe was once sold for sugar please, please do not sell it again for sugar. If you fool me once shame on you but if you fool me twice shame on me.

My friend let,s face the truth and save ourselves the agony of shame and hypocracy. Ian Smith was a bad man; we all agreed. Mugabe by any standard is worse than Ian Smith. At least Zimbabweans were fed when Ian Smith was in power,

Are you trying to say everything Mugabe does should be accepted because he's an African? Wrong shouldn't be accepted regardless of the perpetrator. Africans hated Ian Smith for being a butcher. Why not Mugabe who has done worse things to his people than Ian Smith. Mugabe is a known butcher; he butchered 20,000 Zimbabweans in the 80's, This a fact and not the creation of the western powers.

Mugabe doesn't give a damn if Zimbabweans live or die. Zimbabweans are dying, hungry, diseased and suffering but he doesn't give a hoot. He's a self centered wicked dictator who is absolutely convinced Zimbabwe is his personal or family property just because he was chosen to lead a revolutional struggle. He might had been a great revolutional leader' but he had failed miserably as a viable leader of a peaceful nation. He doesn't have the mandate of the people: Only hanging on to power with the help of the brutal security forces of Zimbabwe.

kbagyenim - somehow you do not sound Zimbabwean and at the same time you are off topic.

You seem to have a lot of hatred for President Mugabe, i don't blame you, you probably consume a lot of London and Washington news.

Your comment is totally off topic as it seems to be about president Mugabe of which i didn't write about president Mugabe.

You may think President Mugabe doesn't give a damn about Zimbabweans basing your argument on the news you consumed from western media.

For the first 25 years, Zimbabwean education was free, there are health centres even in the remotest areas of Zimbabwe, there is at least a school or two in every four or five villages throughout the country, all most all major roads are tarred and at the moment there is pending rural electrification.

You compared Ian Smith to president Mugabe. You probably need to do a bit more research about Ian Smith. He killed nearly a million if not more than a million Zimbabweans. He bombed black schools and hospitals. Imagine all the students in a particular village being wiped out in a second. How devastating is that?

What you should remember is that i talked about Africans waking up. I was referring to people like you, if you are African. You talked about President Mugabe killing 20000 Zimbabweans during the 1980s. When those killings happened as you say , where were the Americans and the British who are now telling us that the man is a dangerous dictator and a Killer. Did they mistake those 20000 Zimbabweans for Christmas Turkeys or is it that they did not care as long as their interest were safe? Now what are they telling us about president Mugabe that we do not know? Is it because Africans cant think for themselves?

Recently, the French government was implicated in Rwandan massacres and not a single African country said a thing. Africans, are we dead alive?

An independent Rwandan commission accused French troops of direct involvement in the killings. It named 33 senior French military and political figures that it said should be prosecuted. Among those named in the report were the late former President, Francois Mitterrand, and the then Prime Minister Edouard Balladur. Two men who went on to become prime minister were also named - Alain Juppe, the foreign minister at the time, and his then chief aide, Dominique de Villepin.

So you accept thta that the Germany Chancellor Adolf Hitler was great because he did a lot of good for the Germans. Remember how Hitler's leadership initiated a lot of economic activities throughout the land of the Great Aryan Huns eg building cars like the VW and building motorways and great advances in science research and most importantly making the German people find pride in themselves. You were never an African living in Rhodesia .. therefore you dont know what you are talking about.....if food is the only important thing on the political horizon, why did Winston Churchill take the English to war against the Great Aryan race in 1939???? Think man!!! Tno only of food but of greater things like the ownership of the soil. Dont be Benyu-mundiro.

Africans should think, act and talk like Africans. We should die fighting for Africa and not die selling Africa. I think this is what they call patriotism and without it we will not succeed as Africans or Zimbabweans.

If you are African and you think like an American or British, then there is something very wrong with you. Thinking like the British, or the Americans is a bigger problem for Africa and Zimbabwe in particular than what people realise. You hear a lot of Zimbabweans calling for help from the British and yet it no so long ago when we lost hundreds of thousands of our brothers and sisters trying to chase these imperialists away and now someone is asking them to come back. Zvimwe kudyisiwa mapondo.

It would actually be stupid and naive to think that the British left Zimbabwe in the first place. The mercenaries, the NGOs and other similar foreign organisations are all examples of masked British or rather western secrete service. A very good example is the Simon Mann's case.

Simon Mann, a former British commando (special forces officer) has been jailed for more than 34 years for leading an attempt to oust Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang Nguema. Sixty-six other suspected mercenaries were arrested with Mann when their plane was impounded in the capital, Harare, in March 2004 when it was found loaded with £100,000 worth of weapons and equipment. His lawyers said they had been on their way to the Democratic Republic of Congo to help secure diamond mines of which in actual fact they were trying to overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea in a coup d'éta. Speaking to Channel 4 News from the notorious Black Beach prison in Malabo, the capital of Equatorial Guinea, Mann said he had been the "manager, not the architect" of the plot. The question is; “who was the architect?” British and Spanish governments, and high ranking political figures, were named in the foiled coup plot. According to Mann, disgraced Tory (member of the Conservative Party) member Jeffrey Archer and EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson were also involved in the plot.

It's not surprising that Zimbabweans who work for these organisations would have problems with the government. This is simply because they are working for the enemy. The 'aid' provided by these organisations in the form of food and other necessities would very much be welcomed by the ordinary Zimbabweans who are suffering from the western imposed sanctions. These people do not know what they are paying for in return for that 'aid' because there is nothing for free. This is western politics, western democracy. Create a humanitarian crisis and then go and help to gain support from the masses in order change governments through “democracy”. Changing governments is not wrong but it should be for the right reasons

I would like to call on all Zimbabweans to wake up because we are not going to build Zimbabwe if we are still asleep. Zimbabwe was once sold for sugar please, please do not sell it again for sugar. If you fool me once shame on you but if you fool me twice shame on me.

It is demoralizing to see how African countries, especially the Bantu states of SADC and in particular South Africa, are letting down the people of Zimbabwe. The Zimbabweans sacrificed so much to help South Africa during apartheid now SA pretends to be doing something while in fact it shows no compassion for the suffering Zimbabwean masses under Robert Mugabe’s misrule. It must be remembered that it was not Robert Mugabe who helped the South Africans; it was the masses of Zimbabwe! It was the same masses of Zimbabwe who helped the freedom fighters against the colonial rulers. Mugabe never risked his life in the bushes of Rhodesia fighting. He was busy planning and killing other liberation leaders in the Front Line States. Mugabe usurped power from the other potential leaders until he was left with J Nkomo. He then murdered over 20,000 people in Matebeleland in order to bring ZAPU under his ZANU. Robert Mugabe has been, and still is, a murderous tyrent who never tolerated criticism or challenge. There is absolutely no justification to Mugabes claim that he owns Zimbabwe. He is the devil he has always been. South Africas hero and liberator Mandela never pretended that he had God-given rights over the citizens of South Africa. Why can’t the present leadership of South Africa use the splendid example of the dignified of liberation leaders, N Mandela, to persude the evil dictator in Zimbabwe to stand down? The Zimbabwe issue is most embarresing, not just to Southern Africa, but also to the whole Black Continent of Africa! How can Africa rise up and participate in the international families of nations and races when it cannot even solve its own minor problems? The present Africa shows a gross lack of common justice to itself and its peoples. As a logical consequence, Africa is plundered more than ever before by other peoples and its so called leaders, like Mugabe have drained the resources from Africa and sent them to Europe, USA and Asia where they get arms to further repress their own peoples! The absence of fair play from South Africa shows a distinguishing lack of true leadersip and warns of imminent detonation and implosion of that republic. South Africa is already showing signs of inner self-poisoning due to ignorant and corrupt leadership. The citizens of South Africa should learn of what has happened in Zimbabwe and take immediate action and dispose of leaders who clain a devine right to leadership based on anti-colonianl struggle. Everybody contributed to the struggle in Zimbabwe and South Africa. The earlier South Africans get rid of the so called liberators like Zuma etc. the better it is for justice and prosperity for the ordinary peoples of South Africa.

"the Bantu states of bla, bla, bla,."

Hocus pocus of the highest order: such phrases are annointed by the REACTION. WHAT, IN THE NAME OF CLIO, IS A "BANTU" STATE?

Racists never change: they just die.

You wanna reflectively kill a racist? Easy: ask the archaic human specimen to tell you PRECISELY WHAT A RACE IS?

THERE ARE NO RACES. THERE IS ONLY THE HUMAN RACE.

Cheers from the City of the INDIVISIBLE UNITY OF TYPE HUMAN, HARARE.

Jabbajaw ,I agree there is only one race,THE HUMAN RACE.So please step up and join us!

Rhodies are a part of the human race?

No: they were decimated by the guns of the roaring Africans, guns that deep sixed rhodies.

Accordingly, you are a shadow of a rhodie, and I don't hang out with shadows, dig, dude rhodie, boneheaded twerp OF THE RHODIE TOOL, MT, THE MOST MORONIC POLITICO IN AFRICA ENTIRE.

Reminder from the ARCHIVES OF THE CITY OF HISTORIOGRAPHICAL METHODOLOGY AND MEMORY, HARARE.

To bad you didnt manage to do it when Cecil turned up dont you think. Shame your people werent brave enough or smart enough or tough enough to outthink the might of the British army like the mighty Maori did. You've only got your own weakmindedness to blame.

Hokoyo, wonderful comments worthy repeating over and over again. Mugabe must go and SADC leaders should pull up their socks and start doing the right things for the region.

The idea that by ransacking his country and brutalizing his own people, Robert Mugabe is somehow striking a blow against western neo-colonialism is just plain preposterous nonsense. Only the unwashed riff-raff who masquerade as war veterans and other members' of Mugabe's machinery of death and destruction believe and peddle such nonsense.

The incontrovertible truth is that Mugabe is a megalomaniac whose only motivation is none other than his own self preservation. In his misguided delusions, he sees Zimbabwe as his own personal belonging.He will never agree to any meaningful power sharing in that country . He believes that he has divine authority and that only him or God can choose when his time to lead and reign in Zimbabwe should come to an end. He has repeatedly proclaimed this to the world with his typical bravado. As far as he is concerned the presidency is not a job with responsibility and accountability to his people.

From the outset, Mugabe was never the kind of person to brook any semblance of a challenge to his power and authority. Even while he was still being universally romanticized as a gallant liberator of his people from vile colonialism and racial bondage, he was busy butchering them in their thousands in Matabeleland.

Remember what happened to Patrick Kombayi when he dared to walk on to Mugabe's turf? That sums up Robert Mugabe.

But to all my long suffering brothers and sisters in that beautiful African country that I once had the joy to visit, I would just like to say hang in there and fight on. Mugabe will do his worst but he can not beat a whole nation. After all he is a shriveled octogenarian who thankfully will dead in a few years whether he likes it or not.

This post was deleted because it contravenes AllAfrica's commenting guidelines.

jaloohlaw, you are confused man. Give up whatever it is you are smoking.

He will die, yes, but he will then be replaced with an identical "liberation hero."

The suffering will continue until at least 12 million people of Zimbabwe have died or fled the country, as the ZANU-PF economic policies can only be sustained for a maximum population of about 1 million, and then only barely.

Sorry to crush your hopes, but the cruelest lie of all is a false hope.

Jailohlaw, show me a part of my last post that you deem factually untrue. Look, you can swallow Mugabe's tripe all you like but you can never hide truths that are there for everyone to see. In reality, you and your ilk are really just frightened little men. Your bravado is a facade because deep down you know that Mugabe's time up. Despots like him invariably always end up losing.

And by the way,you accuse me of phrase parroting - 'THE CRANKING CLAP TRAP OF THE REACTIONARY WING OF THE WESTERN BOURGEOSIE'. What absolute poppycock! Isn't the incoherent gobbledegook you spew in your comical diatribe meant to make you sound Das Kapitalish?

Do you imagine that I am your ilk: stupid in the dickens?

I don't need to revert to your earlier post; the trashy post supra will do.

Do you not see that it is the self-objectification of obscurantist discourse, the apotheosis of NONSENSE---PREGNANT with unclarified idealizations, gushing with the vigor of barely understood concepts, and drowing in wishful 'thinking,', determinations all that posit a FOOL, AND A FOOL YOU ARE, a fool who does know that he is a fool.

Glory to the divine Socrates.

EXAMPLAR FROM THE CITY OF DECONSTRUCTIVE RHETORICAL TOPOI, HARARE.

MAYBE THE SAYING IS TRUE THAT ONE ROTTEN APPLE SPOILS THE WHOLE BUNCH!

very interesting that you folks in Africa are talking about, "thinking out of the box!" I recently attended a thinking out of the box conference in the USA and I suspect that thinking out of the box is pretty much the same around the world. So I would like to share the pictures I took while at the conference, but can't up load here so I do invite you to http://www.saintpeterii.com

Nice try, but why on Earth does anyone think that Mugabe would accept that anymore than any other way of giving up power?

Mugabe must not just go but must footsak!