The Future of the United States = Rhodesia?

There once was an African country called Rhodesia.  Today it is called Zimbabwe.  Yes, there was a long, involved history with all kinds of important factors – Rhodesia was ruled by a white minority but under circumstances far fairer and less offensive than those in, say, neighboring South Africa – but that’s not the point.  The point is, in 1980, when international pressure (and a great deal of treachery from South Africa) managed to force the capitulation of the minority government, Rhodesia was the breadbasket of Africa, the Rhodesian dollar had parity with the British pound, health care was plentiful and cheap, no one starved, many blacks were moving into the middle class, and, materially speaking, things were quite good.

Fast forward 35 years, and after decades of so-called majority rule under (practically speaking) dictator-for-life Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe is the basket case of Africa.  Millions starve. The country is run by thugs.  Mugabe has enriched himself to the tune of Billions while the living standards of ordinary Zimbabweans has imploded.  The white minority who served as the technical and professional class has more or less evaporated, and Zimbabwe has become just another failed state.

For twenty years, off and on, I’ve had a bit of a fascination with Rhodesia.  I don’t care much for the politics or the racialism, naturally, but I do find something to admire in 220,000 whites holding off massed armies of communist revolutionaries for over 15  years, more or less single-handedly.  Not only did they hold them off, they absolutely crushed them. The Rhodesian Army is widely credited with being the world’s foremost counter-insurgency force during the 1970s.  Their tactics and incredible skill and professionalism held the communist insurgents at bay, greatly limiting the damage they inflicted on the country (casualties were a tiny fraction of our own experience in Vietnam (yes, the circumstances were quite different) – the Rhodesians were smart enough not to bomb to smithereens the population they were supposed to be defending). Read a bit about the Fireforce or Selous Scouts and I doubt you will come away unimpressed.

But I hadn’t read any of that stuff in years.  Suddenly, over the past few months, it’s come back in a big way.  I’ve been reading and watching all kinds of material related to Rhodesia.  A few days ago, I began to ask myself why.  Why am I suddenly so interested in all this.  It is true I am very eclectic.  I literally used to read – maybe scan is a better word – encyclopedias when I was a kid.  I learned a little about a lot.  That has certainly carried through to this day, I’m still a mile wide and an inch deep.

But why this – almost a fixation, really – on Rhodesia? Why now?  And suddenly it hit me.  Maybe I see parallels between what happened in Rhodesia, and what I see developing in this country?  Yes the circumstances are drastically different but what I am talking about is the demolition of an advanced, prosperous society for prurient political ends.  The enslavement and impoverishment of millions for the enrichment of a narrow, politically-connected elite.

Perhaps the analogy is a bit strained, but I wonder if there might not be something to this.  Our country is already mired in cultural ruin, economic ruin seems quite advanced, and our political institutions have fallen to the level of a joke.  All that is left is for the natural effects of these disastrous turns to play out.  I don’t know if a country as rich and bountiful as the US will ever experience mass starvation, but Rhodesia was bountiful, too, and used to be Africa’s #1 exporter of grain.  Not anymore.  There is nothing self-interested, self-enriching socialist elites cannot bring to absolute penury.

The Rhodesians fought like hell to keep their country from falling to communists.  They finally gave up when virtually all their neighbors went leftist in ’75 (thanks, Portuguese socialists), the US and Britain threatened far more destructive sanctions, and, most significantly, South Africa finally and foolishly abandoned them.  Mugabe played nice for 12 or 18 months – just enough to consolidate his power – but has since ruled as an absolute tyrant.  Far, far more black Zimbabweans have died under his administration than were ever killed during the entire history of white-run Rhodesia.  As a testimony to this, when former white Prime Minister Ian Smith died in 2007, most blacks lamented that things were far, far better for them under his rule than under Mugabe’s.  Of course, that has been the case over almost all of post-colonial Africa.

Can you see something like Zimbabwe in the future for the US?  If Hillary is elected, I’d say such a future is assured.  At this point, given the media has become simply yet another propaganda arm of the demonrat party, I don’t know if another Republican conservative will ever manage to be elected president again.  All the Repubniks seem good for is serving as the agency to consolidate and normalize leftist gains.  Or perhaps my religious “extremism” causes me to see things too pessimistically, as I realize how very, very far we are from the Catholic idea, and speeding headlong in the wrong direction.

Just one little aside, I love the sing-song accent of Southern African English.  Influenced by Dutch, it’s quite unique.  I love to listen to talk from native Rhodesians like Ian Smith.  It’s kind of like South African English, but a bit different.

For those ignorant of the Rhodesian Bush War, the following videos – admittedly, a bit on the propagandizing side for the then-government – are pretty good backgrounders.  Sorry about the quality, it is what it is:

Interestingly, scores, possibly hundreds, of American men volunteered to fight for the Rhodesians in the Bush War.  Most all were Vietnam vets. Some were out and out mercs, but most were not.  They really loved the country and a few stayed on for quite a while after the war ended. Rhodesia even acquired some Hueys, probably from Iran or Israel, towards the end of the war.  So it was kind of like Vietnam redux for those volunteers.

Mass media coverage.  Notice the bias inherent in THIS kind of presentation.  Communists become “nationalists.”  Atrocities committed largely against other blacks become “raids.”  Nevertheless, a good overview of the Bush War in the mid-70s:

This is actually a very balanced report by Morley Safer of 60 Minutes – again, showing how much our media has degraded in the past 40 years.  Safer was absolutely not a conservative, but he wasn’t so blinded by leftist ideology as to be nothing but a democrat propagandist. There used to be quite a few reporters like this – liberal, but mostly fair, and able to comprehend the other side – but not anymore.  In fact, it’s more than balanced, it almost seems to take the side of the Rhodesian government, which by the mid-70s didn’t oppose black majority rule in principle (in spite of one unfortunate statement by Prime Minister Ian Smith to the contrary), but also didn’t want it either instantly – which had led to chaos and societal near-collapse in so many neighboring countries – or under the point of a communist gun.  Not unreasonable demands, one might hope, but not good enough for the liberal elite who helped dismantle this once advanced and prosperous nation:

Will there be hand-wringing reports like this over the fate of the depressed, downtrodden, chaotic, dissolute United States at some point in the not too distant future?  It seems impossible, but I wouldn’t rule it out.