Mugabe attacks Blair, Bush and Tutu

[dArKeR]

London - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe launched a blistering tirade against Tony Blair and other world figures on Monday, accusing the British premier of doing "mad things" and leading the world into turmoil.

In an interview with Sky News television, Mugabe said Blair considered himself to be "superhuman" and looked down on other people. He also criticised United States President George Bush for "cheating the world" over Iraq.

"They knew they were wrong by deciding to attack Iraq. They deceived the world with lies, lies of mass deception, by telling them that there were weapons of mass destruction," Mugabe said.

Mugabe said Blair still behaved as though Zimbabwe was a British colony and was trying to control it.

http://iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=68&art_id=qw1085329262298B216&set_id=1

[demosincebirth]

1. He should keep his ..

mouth shut and check his own house. He is only trying to deflect criticism about how he subverted democracy in his country.

[el_gato]

2. he should what? He can say whatever the hell he wants

Is he subverting democracy or destroying the legacy of colonialism?
I'm not quite sure.

[Spazito]

3. Pretty sad state of affairs when a monster like mugabe can say...

the things he said about blair and bush and they are the truth. The only response blair and bush can give is "We aren't as bad as him" ala the US torture and murders of Iraqi detainees versus saddam's record. Very sad state of affairs indeed.

(The lack of capitals in the names is deliberate, none of them deserve the courtesy that capitalized names indicate.)

[noonwitch]

4. Mugabe is nothing but trouble, these days

The revolution in Zimbabwe in the 70s-early 80s was necessary and at that time, pretty bloodless. It has gotten ugly recently, with the government-sanctioned killing of white farmers and the reappropriation of their land holdings. There had to have been better ways to develop more equality without resorting to vengeful mob killings and such. He also has had opponents killed and arrested, because he doesn't want fair elections-he might lose.
On top of that, Mugabe has mishandled international aid when his people were needing food assistance. He's a thug, and a communist and I hope the people in Zimbabwe can find a way to rid themselves of his so-called leadership without the intervention of the west.

Of course, he hates Tutu, a man who looks for peaceful means to obtain justice. He's the opposite of Mugabe.

[AP]

5. You got some things backwards. The battle with Ian Smith was pretty bloody

(and not only that, but the violence committed against blacks by the white govermnet prior to the revolution was pretty sick). The civil war that followed independence was pretty bloody too.

The land reform program, however, has been remarkably bloodless. I think 20 people have died, and 10 of them were in a single shootout where a white farmer raised a militia and went looking for a fight.

And I'm not sure there has been a better way to transfer ownership of the land than what Zimbabwe has done. In fact, now Namibia is going to try it. Basically, it's total immesion therapy after the fraud of willing buyer-willing seller (and every other go-slow measure by white farmers who knew they didn't have justice on their side, but hoped they had the power of the former colonizers and the CIA) had failed (as it was obviously going to). Also, it's modeled after what would happen in any western democracy if someone shot your grandparents and took your house and you got an eviction order to remove them.

Also, I'm not sure how much a communist he is. What he seems to be trying to do is to create an effective capitalist market. One of the things Zimbabwe has done recently is they realized that all the banks were foreign owned. That meant that the interest charged on loans for development projects was essentially profit going overseas. In a functioning society, the profit from economic development should cycle within the country.

So Zimbabwe chartered something like 8 new private, Zimbabwean-owned development banks. Of course, trippling the number of banks in the marketplace meant that one or two would fail and another one or two would merge once things settle out, and it also meant that profits for the foreign-owned banks would shrink.

So, as soon as the first bank failed, the World Bank issued a report saying there was too much competition in the Zimbwaen banking industry and that the only way to solve the problem would be to close all but four of the banks. (Wait a minute. Isn't risk and failure and competition all an intrinsic part of capitalism???)

Now, which banks do you think they wanted to remain opened? That's right, the banks which had previously monopolized development, and which cared more about shipping Zimbabwe's wealth to Europe than cycling it within Zimbabwe.

Now, does Zimbabwe's vision of the marketplace sound like communism to you? Or does the World Bank's vision of the marketplace sound like communism? This isn't a hard question.

[Chicago Democrat]

6. We should send a cruise missle in answer!

Fuck Mugabe murderer homophobe racist asshole!