Bandwagon Member, Bush Condemns Mugabe Vote

What is the difference between Iraq and Zimbabwe?

Answer: Oil - Zimbabwe has none.

That’s why it has taken this long for President George Bush to condemn the farce that Zimbabwe is going through. In fact it’s worse than a farce, it is simply bad theatre.

And now, because nearly everyone else in the world has said that there is no such thing as democracy in Zimbabwe, that the elections have been rigged from the start, and that MDC supporters have been beaten, tortured, intimidated, threatened, and killed, he decides he needs to lend his voice to the chorus.

MSNBC reports:

The United States is developing penalties against the government of Zimbabwe, President Bush said Saturday, in response to the country’s widely-condemned runoff election.

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe is accused of using violence to coerce people to vote for him in Friday’s runoff.

Bush, who called the election a “sham”, said he is instructing his secretaries of state and treasury to develop penalties against Zimbabwe’s government and its supporters. The United States will press for an arms embargo on Zimbabwe and a travel ban on government officials, Bush said.

Shouldn’t the paragon of virtue, the defender of democracy, be the first to raise his voice in such a manner?

So now here we are, President Bush is suggesting sanctions. Sanctions! If Zimbabwe had oil in any significant amount American boots would have been on the ground and Mugabe would have been dangling at the end of a rope already.

Does anyone think that penalties such as an arms embargo or foreign travel restrictions will seriously have any effect?

Perhaps I am becoming too cynical in my middle years, I honestly think that an assassination team might do more good. Not that the Western nations would ever do such a thing.