That's a fair enough position. But at the end of the day, if Mugabe is in fact using food as a weapon (which, granted, COULD be nothing but pure propaganda- I am not in Zimbabwe) then that is totally out of order and the reason for my using the phrase "equally disgusting". And to clarify what I was saying about the land seizures, I was not saying that they were ill-timed (other than that they should really have happened in 1980, but you have pointed out valid reasons why the gov't had its hands somewhat tied on this issue), I was saying that they do not seem to be being handled in the way Mugabe would if he was serious about getting the land back in the hands of poor people who need it ASAP and making sure it's productive, rather than using the land grabs as a political manouevre to gain short term support amongst poor landless people. For eg, I have heard from many Zimbabweans and people who have lived in Zimababwe, of various political persuasions, that yes people might be getting land but they are not getting any seeds, tractors, etc. to work it, which combined with drought is the reason why there may be a food shortage looming in Zimbabwe. To me if land redistribution and feeding the nation was your priority, you would be spending the money to make sure people had the ways and means to work the land productively, rather than on building a palace while all this is going on.
I absolutely agree that the western media (including "leftie" papers like Guardian and Independent) are very biased in their coverage of the situation. It's not my intention to play into their demonization of Mugabe/ZANU at all. At the same time, if someone is by all appearances, doing a pretty good job of demonizing himself, I'm not just going to ignore that just because he is the enemy of my enemy.
I will just leave it at that for now. But if you can show me that I'm wrong in any of the impressions I'm getting please do. I do see that the western media is not to be trusted and I may have been unknowingly buying into propaganda, but if so, show me how.
