Sole Survivor?(ISSUES & INSIGHTS)(EDITORIALS)(Editorial)

Zimbabwe: It just seemed like things couldn't get any worse under the rule of Robert Mugabe. They could, they did and they will -- as long as he retains control.

When we last visited "The Shame Of Africa" last summer, we noted that Mugabe had taken the nation to a new low in his quest for absolute power. This he defines as "when a man is starving and you are the only one able to give him food."

The description is apt, since a large part of the population was -- and still is -- going hungry.

At the same time, of course, Zimbabwe's economy has collapsed, unemployment hovers near 70%, poverty is everywhere and the value of the nation's currency has melted away.

Today, food riots, gas lines and government repression are common as Zimbabwe is ever closer to ruin. Welcome to Mugabe's Marxist meltdown.

The trouble -- a term that doesn't do the situation justice -- began when Mugabe seized private farms and turned them over to squatters and political cronies who had neither the incentives nor the skills to keep them running at prior levels.

The country has since gone from breadbasket to basket case: Much of it is dependent on international food relief. The New York Times ...