http://news.sky.com/story/1133033/mugab ... -sanctions

When you consider all the scumbags the west has removed/replaced and aided rivals of down the decades, you have to wonder about that evil old scrote...

No oil. If he had oil they would have invaded him if they could.

I can only guess, but I'd assume he's a case of better the devil you know. He hasn't got long left, but Team Mugabe might not either as we truly head towards globalisation.

The rest of the party are dependent on him staying but it could all change when he dies.

that’s why you have to question why our Govt. allows this to continue without any restraint over so many years ...

It's about patronage. Strong men hold power by forming and maintaining coalitions. For this to work they have to find money, land and jobs to reward their loyal comrades - who in turn need to provide for their lackeys.

During the cold war, they had competing global powers to play off against each other and also former colonial masters who were anxious not to get left out. That provided guaranteed revenue streams, which sustained the plunder based pseudo-democratic systems that hard men prefer. It also ensured the kind of regional political instability that allows them to thrive. In short the cold war provided an evolutionary niche for the likes of Mugabe to inhabit.

The end of the cold war allowed changes to the way international trade and aid work that have substantially undermined the revenue streams that funded the hard men. That's why Mugabe had to start seizing assets to reward his friends (he was no longer able to create phoney jobs for them all). This has made him into the cartoon monster that we see in the news, but its actually a fairly rational reaction to a shift in the forces that created him.

The reason we don't put our weight behind some colonel or other to overthrow him is most likely that there isn't really any prospect of success. Sensible dictators build broad coalitions, they don't have one army and one police force doing their obvious jobs. They have multiple types of competing police force and at least two competing militias (one answering to the minister of defence, another to a senior party official). This is to prevent the CIA from finding somebody they can use to overthrow them. It works in the short term, but is a costly system that ultimately plunders the nation too heavily to be sustained for many generations.