Yet another thing to weigh on Bush's conscience

Thank goodness I listen to "The World," which bills itself as a "co-production of the BBC World Service, PRI and WGBH Boston." If I hadn't listened to it today, I wouldn't have known that the truly desperate situation in Zimbabwe can be attributed in part to President Bush's fault. I was naive enough to think that all the blame lay at President Mugabe's door. You remember Mugabe, don't you? He's the one who has crushed all opposition in Zimbabwe, destroyed the country's democractic institutions, and, in a stunning blow to the economy and the country's ability to produce food, dispossessed all the white farmers so that nobody is farming the land. That Mugabe. By the way, he's been traveling this road for the better part of his 25 years in power. Well, if I hadn't listened to this story on The World, I would never have known that Mugabe's ability to do all these dreadful things is tied to the Iraq War (or, as many know it, Bush's war). According to the women to whom The World spoke, Mugabe is holding the war up as an example of imperialism, and telling his country they need to guard against it. A few things: First, that doesn't explain a 25 year slide into a horrible dictatorship and the country's plunge from affluent African nation to starvation. Second, even if Mugabe is using this as part of his arsenal against Democracy, it seems to me that the report is unduly elevating it, again when considered in light of Mugabe's overall policies in his own country for the last several years. Third, I haven't heard from any other source but this one (a BBC source) that Mugabe is currently maintaining his already complete hold on power by threatening his citizens with an invasion from the U.S. Again, this could be part of his dictator's arsenal, but The World interview gave it way too much weight. Perhaps I shouldn't be surprised. The World ended with an adulatory story about Bruce Cockburn, a Canadian singer whose claim to fame is good guitar work coupled with amateur Leftist lyrics bemoaning all the evils of the West, and plotting bloody revenge against those he doesn't like. You know, the people who produce these stories are entitled to their own viewpoint. What irks me is that it's my taxpayer dollars that pay for these to be broadcast on Public Radio stations across America.