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Gibson Nyikadzino
Correspondent
It was Burkina Faso’s revolutionary leader, Thomas Sankara who said: “An army without patriotic political education is only a potential criminal.”
Of essence to acknowledge here is that the spiritual character of patriotism can be greatly strengthened and embodied in military men and women as a way to cultivate the quality of patriotism conducive to inspire establishment of a correct political outlook and values.
For the Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF), these values are espoused in the remembrance of the mighty and courageous men and women who in the past and present fought and are fighting to provide national service with their very lives.
In the over four decades the ZDF have kept Zimbabwe’s security, independence and peace afloat, even in times of macro-aggressions by external forces who at the turn of the millennium wanted to effect regime change.
At a time when the US and British armies wanted to invade Zimbabwe in the post- millennium period, the ZDF applied military operations other than war to ensure that Zimbabwe was stable.
These included, preventive defence, co-operative security, security co-operation, and defence engagements with other SADC countries to keep the region’s strategic culture vibrant, and exposing the West’s neo-colonial discomforts that are now coming through non-traditional military efforts.
Do not envy Western armies!
History teaches that it was the West that gave Zaire’s Mobutu Sese Seko weapons and provided him with intelligence to capture and kill that country’s first democratically elected leader, Patrice Lumumba.
It was the West who provided Blaise Compaore with intelligence and weapons to assassinate Burkina Faso’s popular and citizen-loved revolutionary Thomas Sankara. And the West will always give one of our African compatriots weapons to kill another compatriot, so that it was one of us killing a fellow.
Then the West is absolved!
Upon this realisation, the tense situation unfolding in West Africa and the Sahel region relating to security threats and instability resulting from terrorism in Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso and extending to the conflict in Sudan tells of the role, in particular the French army, has in destabilising that region.
The French army has been providing intelligence and resources to terrorist groups operating in the Sahel.
It is the same army that led the invaders in Libya, leading to the demise of Colonel Gadaffi. As usual, western governments have been absolved in these unfortunate incidents.
What the ZDF is not
There are liberal ideological strands that Western political and academic institutions have come up with to dismiss and denigrate the importance of the armies and defence forces of African countries, especially when they hold forte to defend the principles of their nations and secure the interests of their founding values.
Where African armies, borne out of colonial struggles and defeating the settler establishment, have since the end of the Cold War in 1991 been pushed by the West to accept then phenomenon the West called the “democratisation era” that was to give Western countries lordship over other states by entrenching their “democratic values”.
However, when the Western countries want to impose their values, it is their armies and militaries established in “democratic” states that cause untold suffering in Libya, Afghanistan, Iraq and even so, in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
It however carries more questions than answers relating to why the “democratic military” of the West is keen on such bloodshed?
It is so because the system that the West wants to lure other African states to adopt for their countries is a highly treacherous one that wants to make the politically stable African countries vulnerable and weak militarily.
This is however what the ZDF is not accustomed to.
The ZDF is not accustomed to abandoning the values, history and principles of what makes Zimbabwe what it is today. Zimbabwe’s military men and women are the salient components of the security and defence institution of our omnipotent state and above all, its true emblem.
The ZDF is built for purpose!
What security sector reforms?
Did you know that foreign-instigated economic and political reforms, accompanied by drops in foreign aid, have weakened the security and military structures of most African states leading to massive collapse of state values?
It should be known that the values and interests of the state, including the military, claim precedence over any other temporarily powerful group or leader.
For the ZDF to have helped maintained a tranquil environment at a time Great Powers were advancing with plans for military invasion at the instigation of Zimbabwe’s opposition politicians, and at a time the global political landscape is changing, with priority given to security and defence, the peaceful experiences Zimbabwe has been through should not be altered by any talk of security sector reform.
The values that the ZDF, the security and military establishments, represent are values of the state and by reforming the security sector, it means the alteration of Zimbabwe’s values and interests. Which is a no go area!
This historical outline makes clear that any attempt to reform Zimbabwe’s security sector and military organisation cuts to the core of the nation’s identity.
A further that the informed may want to bring as a result of this is in the complication that military reforms in Africa is but one aspect of the West’s post-Cold War massive transformation agenda.
Picture a scenario where as of 12 December 2022, the US’ defence budget for 2023 stood at US$857 billion.
It is key to understand also at a micro-level why security and defence have become priorities in this era. China has the second biggest defence budget of US$224 billion in 2023.
That alone tells of the US’ agenda as a global militarist state that seeks to encircle the world through a show of force and penetrate resolute armies, disturb peace, cause instability and throw the world into chaos.
In view of the ZDF, their tremendous efforts should be rewarded by having citizens that are not cowardly, but those who express righteous fury against any setup that targets the statehood of Zimbabwe, as well as its patriotic values as reflected by the ZDF.
Online Reporter