Of course it makes perfect sense for ZANU to lose then win…it gives the veneer of legitimacy and lets then set the pace…ask the only question you need to ask.WHO STILL HAS POWER regardless of all the noise and bluster…

The sad truth is that MDC has stick only a carrot thus NO bargaining tool, ZANU isnt as internationally isolated or unpopular as people want to think…
 Knowing for months it was all a big trap (an election set up by your enemy???) what was the MDC internal strategy ???…The very idea that they promote their non-violence as such a virtue is a wonderful thing for ZANU who know there are no consequences or come backs…not even the illusion of a reaction ….Now imagine a genocidal school bully that knows theres no authority?

People have placed so much on what OTHERS must do or say… where are their own plans???

As I said I take you for a realist ….Go round the world and youll see at least 40 countries in the ‘trouble spot’ que ahead of Zimbabwe where the whole world is watching (which it actually isnt). 

ZANU-PF PLAN ‘A’
To induce the electoral officials to come up with a fraudulent result.

ZANU-PF PLAN ‘B’ (1)
To come up with a real alternative plan.

ZANU-PF PLAN ‘B’ (2)
Engineer a run-off as a fall-back strategy, backed by a ruthless campaign of intimidation against MDC activists.

THE MDC’s DILEMMA -
If it competes in a second round it faces further intimidation. But unless regional governments back its view that a second round is ‘unjust’, to decline to compete would hand victory to Mugabe on a plate.

CONCLUSION -
The whole world is watching, and contesting a second round after conceding a first round defeat is not what Zanu-PF intended. At the end of a five week debacle all they have achieved is to buy a little time. But, for what ?What have they really achieved?

May the end of Mugabe now be in sight and a new dawn appear for all Zimbabweans.

The quest is to find people on this site who see the need for rules of engagement in the first place.

One thing to note is that some here dont like  have an objective (see the facts) relationship with the truth. 

They shape the facts and evidence…often emotinally in order to justify positions that offer no solution but just go round in a circle, back to the square one of…..
A ‘Waiting for Godot’… type POLITICAL farce.

(opposition1)”Bob must go!!!!”…
(opposition2) “ok how do we get rid of him?”
(opposition1) “civic angst , and international pressure”.
(commonsense )..er…that doesnt work by itself, you need more inputs.
(opposition1) “Silence !!!..I have a cunning plan… this time we will try civic angst and international pressure.”

As you said in a prior post …all this was predictable… but even while the trap was seen months ago …people chose to fall into it and make the same excuses about how failure is actually success and (as in 2005) say that the international community (a body split by self interest) MUST do something…all this while people are dying.

Rather than see that this is a deadly serious issue…(a power struggle) that needs due care and respect. 

The MDC has everything to lose by entering into a re-match which they very well know ZANU does not intend to loose. Can’t you see these guys mean business when they hand the world phony results? They are deadly serious and no amount of international excoriating will change, a thing they are irredeemable and don’t care - and of course certifiable- the whole goddamn lot!!! No the fight with ZANU has to be in another space and that’s what well meaning people should be doing,finding that space and defining the rules of engagement.

Meanwhile politicians in the West often champion democractic ideals that they don’t live up to. Indeed the more the Western nations fall short of those ideals in one part of the world, the more they will look for opportunities to talk about them elsewhere. The only “Agenda” in that is the agenda of wanting to remain electable at home - in a democracy that’s all that drives any political leader.

I have been involved with the MDC right since 2000, in London, and I can assure you that if the MDC had any “backers”, Western or otherwise, I would know about them by now. They do not exist. MDC is just a political party made up of Zimbabweans for Zimbabwe.

Maybe it’s part of the damage that Smith and his ilk did to our country and people, when someone like Mugabe can’t take a black person seriously without thinking that there must be white people behind him pulling the strings. I thought we had moved on from that. No-one needs foreign influence in order to think differently or to believe in democracy and the right to choose one’s own government. A little bit of well-placed pride in Zimbabweans and their ability to think for themselves, would go a long way here. No one needs Americans or Chinese, British or Russians or South Africans to do their thinking for them.

Sokwanele ‘prints’ his comments in a noble effort to be non-partisan, so the rest of us who can’t help being VERY PARTISAN (& I’m not ashamed of being vehemantly anti-Bob) must simply skip over his diatribe.

It is clearly a minority view point and as far as I can tell very unhelpful. So don’t let it spoil your day…

you really make me laugh. I can picture you sitting there at your keyboard winding us all up, trying to raise our hackles…but I just laugh out loud…wonderful stuff from our resident jester!

World War II…the Allies went through many years and combinations of commanders before… finally coming across the people who would eventually dismantle the Axis.

Unlike Hope says I dont think people claim the work done on this site is unimportant…but having gone round in a big predictable circle YET AGAIN, from rigged election to foressen outcome…

The question becomes…why believe its all that will be needed… when will people finally admit that a single track method isnt going to dent a Maoist dictatorship supported by SA / China.

History vouches for a combination approach of external pressure and specialist interventions by boots on the ground.

Trying to use the ‘colour revolution’ (economic strife=civil unrest) approach only works on populations that are not scared and apathetic who have organised properly inside the target nation. To pretend that its all non violent is a lie.

People claiming the mantle of the MLK approach ignore the fact that he wasnt seeking to overthrow the USA government…

However this whole ZDERA project is about regime change …from the inception of the MDC til now.

The very fact that the money supporting many Zimbabwe pro change civic groups comes from… can be ignored but not dismissed.eg VOA-STUDIO7 and others.

Thus again to the the issue….after yet another… one wing take off… and more unnecessary deaths when are people going to admit the real intention is regime change and do the ugly job properly…. or are they going to continue to mix their peaceful facade with the necessary methodology?

Nelson Mandela is lauded by many as the epitome of civilized man, yet even he saw it was a mixed approach.