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Ranga Mataire Group Political Editor
WHEN one continuously and callously plays a record — either a CD or vinyl, it eventually develops scratches that make it difficult to play smoothly.
Such has been the United States’ foreign policy towards Zimbabwe since the turn of the century, when Zimbabwe embarked on its revolutionary land reform programme.
The United States imposed the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act (ZIDERA) on Zimbabwe in 2001. It was an attempt to arm-twist the ZANU-PF government or weaken it in favour of opposition political parties. Since then, the US has renewed the economic sanctions each year.
Much like a broken record, these renewals of sanctions have long become little more than an annual ritual.
Recently, the United States Secretary of State, Mr Antony J. Blinken, announced new visa restrictions aimed at what he called individuals undermining democracy in Zimbabwe. This, again, sounded just like yet another broken record. It was nothing we had not heard before. It served only to excite a few still clinging to a hope for foreign intervention. The new measures are meant to prop up the waning fortunes of an opposition in total self-inflicted disarray.
Beyond a few desperate activists, few can still be convinced that this has anything to do with democracy.
The US has lost all moral authority, as confirmed more recently by its support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza. This was a point aptly driven home by the former Zimbabwe Information Minister and political scientist, Professor Jonathan Moyo.
“The bottom line is that the US has nauseating double standards!” Prof Moyo said, currently describing the US as a “faded superpower” driven by racism.
Few can contest Prof Moyo’s views.
For long, the United States’ foreign policy, anchored on blackmailing any deviant nations pursuing nationalistic policies, has made no attempts to mend relations in the post-cold war/post-colonial period.
For Zimbabwe, the land reform programme was an unforgivable sin that must be punished for eternity, lest other nations consider taking similar redress.
Beyond race, the US is driven by its appetite for economic control. It is willing to look past any ephemeral political issues with Mozambique, Angola and Tanzania so that it can get its hands on resources and trade routes.
The same cannot be said of Zimbabwe. America’s foreign policy towards Harare is about blackmailing the country enough to make the situation unbearable for citizens. The hope is for an unlikely uprising that will install a pliant regime willing to hand over economic interests to Big Brother, shutting out others.
America is stuck in a time-warp of immortalising its self-importance in world affairs. It is stuck in 1782, when writers and poets waxed lyrical about the country being the “first nation”.
Ralph Waldo Emerson viewed the United States as a “last effort of the Divine Providence on behalf of the human race,” while Herman Melville considered his countrymen a “peculiar chosen people, the Israel of our times: (bearing) the ark of liberties of the world.
Nothing has changed for America, but the world is changing. The sooner America and its local shills realise this, the better for them.
The world is entering the stage of multipolarism. The “Big Brother” mantle is waning. The saddest part is that local American lackeys are failing to see this inevitability.
The recent war in Israel has exposed America’s pretences of being the paragon of democracy and human rights. It has openly sided with Israel in what most countries regard as a genocidal war against Palestinian civilians.
The world is seeing the United States for what it is; a war-loving country that never does anything out of the kindness of its heart.
The United States has also lost the trust of many countries as a mediator for international disputes. A case in point is the gradual loss of its power and its ability to shape a future for Syria. The country has now fallen under the Russian sphere of influence.
It now has little say at the negotiating table.
The unipolar order is fading and a multipolar world is shaping the future of relations among states. Despite sanctions, Zimbabwe has continued to build ties on a mutual basis with willing countries through its “a friend to all, and an enemy to none” policy.
The fact informing Zimbabwe’s foreign policy is that no one power or group can uphold the international order any more. To survive the uncertain times, countries are seeking amenable blocs that safeguard their interests.
The US cannot preach about the values of freedom and democracy while at the same time denying the same to the Palestinians.
America’s own citizens, especially African Americans, today still are victims of legalised segregation, restrictions on voting aimed at minimising their representation, and widespread racial violence.
Today, we see unprecedented pushback of America’s diplomatic intrusiveness in Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa.
Imposing economic measures on sovereign nations on flimsy demands for democracy or human rights has indeed become a “broken record”. Everyone can see what angered the US into its latest move on Zimbabwe.
The United States was peeved by the August election results, which bestowed the revolutionary ZANU-PF party and its leader President Emmerson Mnangagwa with the fresh mandate of running the affairs of the country for the next five years.
No one is blind to such a clear intrusion in the domestic affairs of s sovereign nation seeking nothing but a chance to chart its own destiny.
Online Reporter