US Embassy baby dumps naïve Chamisa
Hosia Mviringi
The date is July 6, 2021 and the setting is at Bagram Airbase in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.
It is the day the United States Army uncharacteristically trooped out of the Airbase in the dead of the night, unannounced.
They did not even alert or said goodbyes to the new Afghan army Commander, who only learnt of their departure more than two hours later.
Afghanistan had been under brutal occupation of the US and Allied Forces for nearly two decades since former US President George W Bush declared war on terror in the aftermath of the Taliban bombing of the Twin Towers on September 11, 2009.
The scope of this instalment is not entirely about why the US had occupied Afghanistan in the first place, but it will focus on why the US troops had to sneak out through the night.
Why they had to break the ceiling to escape the heat of the kitchen.
The thesis will endeavour to draw parallels between the US experiences in Afghanistan and Zimbabwe.
Of course Zimbabwe was nowhere close to the Pentagon when it was bombed then, neither were there armed terrorists in the Southern African country as was alleged against Afghanistan, to warrant US occupation of the Southern African country.
While the US did not invest in direct or physical occupation of Zimbabwe as they did in Afghanistan, they indeed have occupied the Southern African country by proxy since September 11, 1999, much longer than the Afghan expedition.
Yes, Zimbabwe has been under US occupation for longer than Afghanistan.
But why did the US leave Afghanistan unceremoniously, and apparently with eggs all over their face?
When the US decided to invade Afghanistan, it was with a clear mission to hunt down Osama Bin Laden, and to subsequently occupy the territory for some economic recovery mechanism, yet they forgot to craft a clear exit strategy.
To their folly, the US had believed that Afghans had adjusted and eased into the new way of life under occupational subjugation.
The US went to sleep while enjoying proceeds of illicit heroine and cocaine trade from vast Afghan plantations.
For nearly twenty years, US troops had built homes and established themselves from within the walls of their fortified bases.
Of course, Afghanistan had served them well as a newer and more effective US expansionist outpost to counter the Islamic Shia influence emanating from Iran. Maybe a story for another day.
But, Afghan resilience, patience, and critical alliances with strategic partnerships saw a sizeable number of native personnel getting preferential military training and induction into the rank and file of the US Army, positions which they would later use to retake their country.
The rest is history as they would say.
Back to the US occupation of Zimbabwe.
Yes, the US had moved in to occupy Zimbabwe by proxy, two years before they invaded Afghanistan.
As alluded to before, on September 11, 1999, the US approved the formation and funding of the Movement for Democratic Change, a party which was formed and carried on the shoulders of vibrant Trade Unionism.
It had until recently, been earmarked as a Trojan horse for the occupation of Zimbabwe by proxy.
Of course the MDC founding President Morgan Tsvangirai is on record advocating for direct US military occupation of Zimbabwe in protest over what he considered ineffective sanctions regime.
It can be very clear that even though the MDC has not been able to win power and to form an exclusive government, they have carried American influence which was in display during the infamous GNU period between 2009-2013.
Today Zimbabwe can still feel the weight of US occupation through some inconvenient provisions in the 2013 Constitution which were by extension a reflection of American virtual occupation of the country.
The position of the US through the MDC was later solidified through the infamous imposition of economic sanctions on Zimbabwe through ZDERA in 2001, purportedly in protest against a successful land reform program.
Yet this move could similarly be interpreted in similar terms to the Afghan occupation, expansionist and conquest strategy.
The failure of the MDC party to attain power in subsequent elections in 2002 did not do any good to the relationship between Zimbabwe and the US which then continued to intensify its onslaught on the country at many international fora, including at the United Nations Security Council where it unsuccessfully lobbied for comprehensive sanctions.
The object of this instalment is to highlight the subtle defeat of the US in Zimbabwe and its subsequent disgraceful Nicodemus departure from Zimbabwean opposition politics.
The United States Embassy in Zimbabwe has been an active opposition player in Zimbabwe for more than 20 years now.
Over the years the US Embassy in Zimbabwe has been the bastion of opposition scheming, coordination, mobilisation, advisory and funding activities.
The MDC as led by Nelson Chamisa had effectively morphed into a US Foreign Policy extension tool or entity.
On numerous occasions, the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations has openly consulted with the MDC leadership for its routine Foreign Policy interventions.
The committee had become used to trusting Tendai Biti, Nelson Chamisa and other Civic Society Organisations more than their Diplomats at Westgate.
After 22 years of barren attempts at attaining power in Zimbabwe, and the countless splits ensued in the favourite MDC party, the frustration and fatigue would be excusably visible, both in the supporters and the sponsors, US Embassy in Harare.
Hope began to fade amid counter accusations over abuse of donor funds by conduit CSOs in Harare.
Perhaps worth noting is the disorderly manner that Nelson Chamisa conducted himself since the death of Morgan Tsvangirai that sent a clear message to the US Embassy that indeed this was a dying project.
Indeed, funding began to wither away much to the frustration of the ‘Jecha man’ who has now resorted to crowdfunding for survival.
As in the Afghanistan debacle, the US has not had an exit strategy when it came to their imperial excursions in Zimbabwean politics.
When they came in then in 1999 they were so sure that their project would succeed, judging by the zeal personified through generous funding of the project.
The defeat of Nelson Chamisa at the Supreme Court in Case number SC56/2020 became the final straw that broke the camel’s back.
Of course the US could not be convinced to bankroll a new political party whose chances of winning any significant seats in 2023 are as good as an iceberg in hell.
Sensing defeat, the US quietly retreated into their shell, shying away from any comments regarding the still-born CCC Party.
Apparently the US Embassy is doing everything to dissociate with the new creature, thus Nicodemously creeping out of the Zimbabwean opposition politics in the dead of the night.
The usually vacuous US Embassy Twitter handle went dead quiet on the eve of the launch of the broken yellow party, signifying the freezing of relations with the old actors in a new party.
To many ardent political analysts, this explains the uncharacteristically long period the US has taken to second a substantive Diplomat to Zimbabwe since the departure of Mr Brian Nichols in August 2021, with the Westgate compound continuing under the unceremonial tutelage of a Charge de Affairs.
Brian Nichols, arriving in Zimbabwe in July 2018, had a clear mandate to get the MDC into power and cement American occupation of Zimbabwe. But of course as history may have it, he left with his tail tucked in between his legs, with shame, after a three year stint.
He will surely live to tell tales of a liberated country called Zimbabwe.
It is clear that the next US Ambassador to Zimbabwe will have their work cut out as he or she is expected to start on a completely new slate, with no connection or residual sympathy with the actors in the new yellow formation.
Or probably at best, they are still reading the air while a fresh strategy is formed.
The United States Embassy in Harare, and by extension the leadership at Capitol Hill have been left to lick their wounds of shame at the failure of their project in Zimbabwe as they did in Afghanistan.
A proxy occupation in Zimbabwe has officially come unstuck, as has their brutal armed occupation of Afghanistan.
As this writer puts pen to paper, the leader of the new yellow formation, has just returned from Tanzania on a consolation visit to a fellow opposition party, uncharacteristic of him.
Under normal circumstances he, together with one Tendai Biti would be somewhere in Washington DC for their routine consultations at the US Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, as usual with a begging bowl in hand and some reassuring puppet smiles.
Chisingaperi chinoshura. Zimbabwe will never be a colony again.
Chati homu chareva!
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