There is always a great deal to learn from the responses to the US' tradition of aggression and mass murder, be this about the Vietnam War, the invasion of Grenada, the terrorist attacks on Cuba, the aggression on Nicaragua, the Gulf War, the invasion of Iraq, the occupation of Afghanistan, or the economic aggression on Zimbabwe.

When George Bush Senior resorted to the use of force against Saddam Hussein in Kuwait and earlier through the barbaric invasion of Panama, there were those who acclaimed the ringing messages about the wondrous "era full of promise," and these people had to craft the historical record skilfully, excising crucial facts.

It is like the story about the "struggle for democracy" in Zimbabwe. Those acclaiming the glorious rhetoric about "bringing democracy" to Zimbabwe have had to craft Zimbabwe's historical record very skilfully, excising all the positives associated with Zanu-PF in general and those related to President Mugabe in particular.

These people will never acknowledge that Zanu-PF fought for and brought democracy to Zimbabwe after 14 years of a war of attrition that resulted in the first one-man one-vote election in the history of the country.
This was, of course, at the expense of Ian Smith's minority government that presided over a powerful minority economy often wrongly and variously described as "breadbasket of Africa" or "Africa's second strongest economy".

There is never mention of how this breadbasket of Africa excluded the majority black Zimbabweans to the extent of banning them from walking on exclusive streets meant only for the white race — no mention whatsoever of how Africa's strongest economy sidelined and condemned the majority of its people into absolute poverty.

Zanu-PF's practical achievements in the last 30 years are never proclaimed by the self-righteous history makers from the West.

By 2000 there were 4 500 primary schools with a combined enrolment of 2 274 178 in contrast to the pre-independence 2 041 segregated primary schools with a total of 81 958 pupils. This phenomenal achievement cannot be attributed to Zanu-PF and Robert Mugabe since these are unwanted facts that need to be excised.
In 1979, there were 177 secondary schools in the then Rhodesia with a total enrolment of 66 215 students and by 2000 Zimbabwe had 1 548 secondary schools with a total of 700 000 pupils. Again this fact is so keenly excluded by the West's media and by their intellectual community. The MDC-T does not want to hear this.

Overall, compared to 1979, there were three times as many children in primary schools by 2000, and there were 12 times as many students in secondary school, effectively eradicating Ian Smith's racist bottle-neck pre-independence education system. This also is deemed so irrelevant.

There were only four Teachers' Training Colleges at independence with a total enrolment of 1000 student teachers, and by 2000 there were 16 teachers' colleges with a combined enrolment of 17 000.

There were only a couple of technical colleges before independence with a total enrolment of 2000 and by the year 2000 there were 15 technical colleges with an enrolment of 20 000. Again these facts are largely muted in the war against Robert Mugabe.

The University of Zimbabwe was the only university in the country at independence and it had an enrolment of 2000. By the year 2000, there were seven other universities and a combined enrolment of 30 000. Yet another excised fact. All we are told are the sanctions-induced problems in the tertiary sector today.

Literacy was standing at 62 percent at independence and today Zimbabwe has the highest literacy in Africa with 93 percent of its population defined by the UNDP as literate. This also is a silenced fact.

In June 2000, President Mugabe had this to say about Zimbabwe's education system, "We are leaders in education and skills development, and we continue to introduce changes to our educational system to ensure we remain among the best and broad enough to meet our manpower and skills requirements. Again this is a resounding achievement for which we make no apologies."

Zimbabwe's professionals: doctors, accountants, engineers, nurses, teachers and many others are among the most sought after in Europe, the US and many other parts of the world. This also is muted. We are rather told that Zimbabwe has lost "25 percent of its population" to overseas destinations.

Twenty years after independence, the Zanu-PF Government had constructed and upgraded 456 health centres, built 612 rural hospitals, 25 District hospitals, and one provincial hospital for each of the country's eight provinces. By the same time 85 percent of the population were within 8km of a health facility.

There was 25 percent coverage of immunisation at independence and in 20 years this had risen to 92 percent, and ante-natal coverage rose from 20 percent at independence to 89 percent in 20 years. These are yet other silenced facts.

There were 1 226 boreholes throughout the country at independence and after 20 years boreholes had risen to 34 538, with an additional 10 536 deep wells, 520 rural piped water schemes, up from only 26 at independence. This also will never be said openly in the West.

A lot can be said about the upgraded and newly constructed roads, about Zesa's rural electrification programmes and other infrastructural developments.

There were 121 dams at independence, largely belonging to the white community, and after 20 years there were 2 438 dams across the country. There were four agricultural training colleges at independence and these had risen to seven after 20 years, reducing the extension worker-farmer ratio from 1 to 1 200 to 1 to 800.
Between 1980 and 1995, and under the willing buyer-willing seller policy, 71 000 families were resettled on 3,3 million hectares acquired from the commercial sector. This is rarely talked about. We are told land was then all taken by politicians.

The 2000 compulsory land reclamation programme has benefited 300 000 families, reducing the 4 000 white commercial farmers to under 1000, as many relocated after refusing to have their massive pieces of land shared with the landless masses.

Now all this is the achievement demeaned by the irascible and highly excited Nelson Chamisa, the MDC-T spokesperson. He recently rhapsodised at a rally in Kuwadzana that the MDC-T had done more in its two years in an inclusive Government with Zanu-PF than the later had achieved in 30 years. To say this claim by Chamisa is ludicrous is to be extremely polite. Frankly speaking, the claim is perfectly stupid.

We hear that the MDC-T is dedicated to "real change," to "excellence" and "to democracy". This is to be delivered by the only African political party ever to be entirely run from Western embassies, led by a "flawed figure" with a terrible record of overturning a popular vote right in the face of the majority that had voted.

When Bush Senior called for a New World Order we were told by Western intellectuals that the call was dedicated to "peace and security, freedom and the rule of law," and of course the call was delivered by the only ever head of state to stand condemned by the World Court for the "unlawful use of force," though of course the Court's condemnation of the Reagan-Bush terrorist war against Nicaragua was dismissed with contempt by Washington, the Western media and intellectual opinion.

These people argued that the judgment merely discredited the World Court, and this is how the respectable commentators explained it.

Bush being the "noble-minded missionary," had opened the post-Cold War era in December 1989 by invading Panama (Operation Just Cause), well aware "that removing the mantle of the United States protection would quickly result in a civilian or military overthrow of Endara and his supporters," as explained by Latin America specialist, Stephen Ropp.

This meant that the puppet regime of bankers, businessmen, and narco-traffickers installed by the Bush invasion would face immediate demise if the master patron withdrew.

For the same reasons Barrack Obama cannot go out of Iraq and Afghanistan, especially the later; where Hamid Karzai could easily reach the US ahead of the withdrawing US soldiers. He would not last a moment without US protection.
Totally ignored when Panama was invaded was the US veto of two Security Council resolutions condemning the invasion, along with the General Assembly resolution that denounced the invasion as a "flagrant violation of international law and of the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of states" and called for the withdrawal of the "US armed invasion forces from Panama."

Also expunged from the record was the March 30, 1990 resolution of the Group of Eight (Latin American democracies) expelling Panama, which had been suspended under Noriega, because "the process of democratic legitimation in Panama requires popular consideration without foreign interference that guarantees the full right of the people to freely choose their governments."

Such freedom for the people of Panama was obviously impossible under a puppet regime maintained by the US.
Equally, Zimbabweans can never vote freely and fairly for as long as those elections include a foreign backed puppet party riding on the wave foreign interference and the strength of illegally imposed Western sanctions.
Like the Latin American Group of Eight for Panama in 1990, Sadc does not want foreign interference in the politics of Zimbabwe and they have alongside the AU and others called for the lifting of "all forms of sanctions against Zimbabwe".

The Organisation of American States and the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights both condemned the US invasion of Panama, the same way Sadc, the AU, NAM and many individual countries have publicly condemned the ruinous illegal sanctions imposed by the West on Zimbabwe — largely derailing Zanu-PF's fine list of success stories as earlier outlined in this piece.

Such condemnation is excised by the West and one never gets to hear about it in Western media. What we hear is the side that condemns Robert Mugabe as a ruthless dictator presiding over an overly suffering population.
We are never told that Bush's greatest fear when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait was that the later would emulate the US achievements through Operation Just Cause in Panama. The US was scared that Saddam Hussein would install his own puppet regime in Kuwait before withdrawing — something Saddam had admired from his makers in Washington; after they invaded Panama.

Freedman and Karsh wrote, "Saddam apparently intended neither to annex the tiny emirate nor to maintain a permanent military presence there. Instead, he sought to establish over Kuwait, ensuring its complete financial, political and strategic subservience to his wishes."

This is what the US intended and achieved in Panama and it is what they intend to achieve in Zimbabwe.
Saddam was unfortunate because he could not veto Security Council resolutions against him, unlike George Bush Senior, his fallen out ex-master.

The veto only worked for what Freedman and Karsh called "text book cases of aggression," such as US-South Vietnam, Turkey-Cyprus, Indonesia-East Timor, Israel-Lebanon, US-Panama, US-Iraq and many others.

This super power monster with the ability to shield its evil deeds by violating the parameters of its privileges as a permanent member of the UN Security Council is what Zimbabweans are faced with today. The monster wants its "flawed figure" quisling Morgan Tsvangirai to lead a puppet regime in Zimbabwe. They have so far failed to get past the resolute "brilliant tactician" by the name Robert Gabriel Mugabe.

Election 2011 faces the threat of massive Western interference that may take away the people's free and fair choice of a government of their choice.

Zimbabwe is fortunate to have a significant number of war veterans and those cadres who participated in the war for independence. These have stood resolute against interference by the West and their efforts have so far saved Zimbabwe from being Panamised and from having a Karzai replica in the name of one Morgan Tsvangirai.

Zimbabwe we are one and together we will overcome. It is homeland or death!

Reason Wafawarova can be contacted on wafawarova@ yahoo.co.uk or reason@rwafawarova.com or visit www.rwafawarova.com

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