Well, earlier in the week I predicted it, not because I am especially perspicacious, but because it was so predictable: “Prepare for rhetorical brickbats to come from Zim's wily tyrant.” And brickbats we have gotten. In his Wednesday address before the United Nations, Mugabe had a field day. His material tends not to vary all that much — accusations of imperialism, neo-colonialism, hypocrisy. He lashed out at President Bush (whose utter mishandling of Iraq and other foreign policy ventures makes him a logical target) and Gordon Brown. Mugabe even savvily praised Thabo Mbeki for Mbeki's mediation in Zimbabwe. It was atypical Mugabe performance, largely unhinged, not without its rhetorical merits, but largely obfuscatory of the real issues. The man is certainly a world class demagogue.
