Zimbabwe 'ready for British invasion'

Zimbabwe 'ready for British invasion'

news.bbc.co.uk

The Zimbabwean government has accused the UK of plotting an invasion and considering assassinations of the country's political leadership.

Presidential spokesman George Charamba said Harare remained ready to defend itself against the "sinister threats".

He was responding to comments by a former British general Lord Guthrie in a UK newspaper a week ago.

Lord Guthrie recalled advising the ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair against invading Zimbabwe.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Quite an interesting story.

There's no evidence to suggest that the UK is even giving serious consideration to an invasion of Zimbabwe to remove Mugabe's regime. But it's been floated around before, even on these boards. MI6 has never officially renounced assassinations, so it's quite possible there are plans in place for this to happen.

news.bbc.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

I feel very sorry for the people of Zimbabwe. I haven't kept up on the latest news there for almost a year, but it wasn't good when I was paying attention.

There will be no change there until Mugabe leave office. He has some crazy ideas and none of them are helping the people. This is truly sad.

Taking him out may be the best option, but many will say that is not the right way to do things. If it will stop the suffering of the majority of the country why not do it?

I can already hear the comments, but how long are they going to suffer until Mugabe gets things figured out?

reply to post by Ste2652


I am in the uk and whilst I give the mainstream media ie BBC/ch4 and most dailys a wide berth, I would not be surprised if what has been reported becomes a reality/tradegy in the future,only because I am fully aware of what this country has done throughout history.It would be a serious error to go marching in there under the illusion of making anybodys life better, A bit like us being the freinds of iraq six or seven hundred thousand bodys later, I dont beleive it would be any time soon anyway,there are to many afghanistans still alive at present [sarcasm

Originally posted by NJ Mooch
Taking him out may be the best option, but many will say that is not the right way to do things. If it will stop the suffering of the majority of the country why not do it?

I couldn't agree more. Its gone on too long.

Before anybody makes comparisons with iraq, lets just stop there shall we?

IF we did invade, it would be a welcome invasion. There is massive unrest in the country against Mugabe, there is a strong opposition movement and even the Archbishop of Zimbabwe has called for the UK to invade. It wouldn't be like Iraq in the slightest.

We'd more than likely bump off a few key figures and let the opposition take care of the rest though, to be honest. They have the institutions there in Zimbabwe to be successful country. After all, it was before Mugabe took power and many of the Government frameworks are still in place.

We don't, currently, have the manpower to go invading Zimbabwe. What we might do, as stated above, is destabalise the regime and "support" the opposition with a small EU peacekeeper force. I doubt we would see much resistance from the people of Zimbabwe, quite the opposite in fact.

Just to back up what Stu is saying above really.

The UK couldn't do this with its commitments in Iraq and Afghanistan as they are.

Even without Iraq and Afghanistan, I doubt we'd manage it.

The country is huge and we'd need to be welcomed. Any sign of resistance and the whole thing would go belly up.

The best bet would be a joint EU/AU task force, but alot of African leaders seem to like Mugabe.

Not sure why though.

Originally posted by stumason
and let the opposition take care of the rest though, to be honest.

Yes, I'm sure there is no shortage of machetes in that country.

I'm wondering though why do the Brits or whoever else need to fix all the multiple failed states in the world? I mean, untold number of people died in Sudan, after all, and as bad as Mugabe is, he's probably better that those Sudanese mf's, right?

Where do you start?

I've spoken to people from there that left for south africa, and I'm told
that killing Mugabe, as in a assasination, is a bad idea because there
is FAR worse waiting in line to replace him, also the politics down this end
of the world are nuts enough that South Africa could actually allie itself
with Zimbabwe against a UK invasion, I kid you not!.

Zimbabwe has been deteriorating steadly since Mugabe went nuts, Its
inflation is offically at %8000 but econimists say the real figure if
somewhere around %15000.
South Africa is Zimbabwes lifeline, we are supplying them with their
only electricity free of cost when South Africa can't forfill its own
demand, also we've, strangely, been servicing their military equipment
on a few occasions that I know of.
I strongly suspect the local African leaders would unite against an
invasion, there's some serious backward thinking happening around here

Just last week our defence minister (Lekota) started spewing some
threats against Africom (America's african headquater thingy)
and talked of moving against threats INSIDE South Africa against
the govenment, worded to sound suspiciously like opposition political
parties to me, not good stuff.

[edit on 19-11-2007 by TheBlueLantern]

Can we send in special agent 'scratcher'? Will Jeffrey Archer pay for this?

I think it is time again to sing 'Jerusalem' and pray for our mercen... *cough* legitimate military forces

Originally posted by stumason
The best bet would be a joint EU/AU task force, but alot of African leaders seem to like Mugabe.

Not sure why though.

Other African nations don't criticise him because they know they'll come under scrutiny themselves, and there are very few functioning democracies in Africa... it'd be sort of like the pot calling the kettle black. Others just don't want to be seen towing the European line (Mugabe must go) because they'll look like colonies again, which is still a raw nerve in Africa. I know, logically it's daft, but the world isn't always a logical place.

And I fear that is why the African Union won't sort the problem itself. We would have difficulty doing it ourselves because of Iraq and Afghanistan - Commonwealth backing (not EU backing alone... remember, the great colonial powers were European!) and participation is required.

Yup Mugaube needs to go and go NOW !. He is clearly mentally unwell. Surely it can be a blue helmet job, UN job? Muguabe does not have to be bumped off. Just arrest him and put him on trial and then if found guilty send him to prison. End of story. oh hang on, i forgot, the UN it too afraid these days to commit itself to doing that.

Oh well, there will come a time when things get so bad there will be an internal coup of some sort or a nasty civil war to sort things out.

invade ASAP.

i wrote to my MP to encourage the government to invade.