Thursday, February 12, 2009

This makes me nervous

I don't know if you heard amongst the headlines yesterday about the news in Zimbabwe. It got a brief paragraph mention on the News Hour and was referenced in the top of the hour report on NPR. But yesterday, Robert Mugabe swore in Morgan Tsvangirai (pronounced CHANG-er-eye) as Prime Minister with Mugabe still in power as president.

I just don't see how this can end well. Mugabe has proved himself over the course of 30 years to be a power-mad lunatic. And suddenly now things are going to be all right? I think the U.S. State Department is right to take a "wait and see" approach before lifting any sanctions. I mean, there's hope and then there's foolishness. Personally, I think I'm sticking to prayer right now. The NY Times article ends with this:

After the swearing-in ceremony, a veteran ZANU-PF official who belongs to the party’s politburo said of Mr. Tsvangirai, speaking on the understanding that he would not be quoted by name: “He will not last. I swear to you. We just want to buy time.”

Yeaaah. PM Tsvangirai had best be watching his back. I don't like this one little bit.

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