MUGABE THREATENS TO INVADE AND ANNEX BOTSWANA

Given the present state of political and security matters in the region, the only State with the competence and experience for a peacekeeping and peace-making role in the region is Zimbabwe. I dread to imagine that capacity being turned the other way, namely as a peace-breaking proposition. Should that happen — and God forbid — those quarters, which have been pretending militant solidarity with MDC-T, will go quiet. They stand no chance. The environment will be very grave and forbidding. So the MDC must never overrate its friends who can only go so far, do so much, with Zanu-PF’s tolerance. Except the region will not allow that dire eventuality of peace breaking, not for Zimbabwe’s sake but for its own sake. "

This veiled threat is contained in Robert Mugabe's spokesman's weekly column in The Herald. There is no doubt that this regime is now getting desperate, losing patience and perhaps even contemplating the suicidal. There are many other points in Charamba's article (they are always extremely long) which betray this frustration. Mugabe's spokesman, without mentioning Botswana by name, hints that those countries that are giving the MDC moral succor would shut up in a flash should Zimbabwe flex its military muscle, not to keep the peace, but to break it.

Mugabe is obviously not serious. Does he, through his spokesman, remember Kuwait? Do they not know what happens to countries that invade other countries? Do they think that they would last more than 24 hours in power or office after crossing the border into Francistown? Do they think that America will be keep its jets in Afghanistan and Iraq, leaving Botswana swinging in the wind? Whatever they are smoking, they should stop immediately.

The way Mugabe and his spokesman are talking, they have already concluded that the talks opening in Harare this Monday will break down. When they do, Mugabe has no intention of trying again, it seems. He will drop all pretence and show that his claim to the Zimbabwean presidency is premised on nothing but might. Barefacedly, he will install a unilateral government, perhaps arrest the MDC leadership and throw them into jail (the article also claims MDC's hands are dripping with the blood of their own and ZANU PF supporters, hinting darkly that the police now have all the evidence they need to move in for the kill). Let no man discount this. Mugabe believes that he was ordained by God to rule Zimbabwe. Like Adolf Hitler, who claimed that "Providence" protected him from assassination, who claimed that the same "Providence" would deliver miracles in the winter-beaten plains of Russia, Mugabe believes that nothing can touch him until he is good and ready.

Hubris? Perhaps. But before Nemesis visits him, he could easily set fire to Zimbabwe. Louis of France, anyone? - "After me, the flood".

We are at the edge, friends of Zimbabwe. We are living the last days of civilisation in Zimbabwe. To read the whole rambling piece from Charamba, visit The Zimbabwe Herald's home page and see for yourselves how many straws this drowning man is capable of clutching at.