I suspect he means that efforts to delay or avoid black majority rule were ultimately doomed to failure.
As Steve said:
Quite right. Nor can it substitute for a lack of realism at the national level about what is, or is not, achievable.Word. Tactical acumen cannot compensate for a failed strategy. Afghanistan anyone?
They mostly come at night. Mostly.
- university webpage: McGill University
- conflict simulations webpage: PaxSims
Circa. 1960 to delay was the (historically proven) intelligent approach but to avoid would have been futile.
Perhaps your attention (and that of a few others around here) should be drawn to the Southern Rhodesia proposed Constitution 1961 where the "Europeans" (meaning whites) accepted a qualified franchise system which would have led to an "African" (meaning black) majority in parliament within 7-8 years (soonest) or 10-15 years (more likely).
But the Brits - Alec Douglas-Hume and his flunky Duncan Sandys (Commonwealh and Colonial Secretary) - being led by the nose by that other "great" African democrat and champion of one-party elections Julius Nyerere - whose country (Tanzania) under his "enlightened" leadership went from the largest exporter of agricultural products in Africa to the largest importer of agricultural products - demanded that one 5 year term of parliament leading to a one-man-one-vote... once ... was the best they could offer and the best that - "great" body of democrats and human rights activists - the Commonwealth would accept.
In addition those two liberal authors (by the US definition) of Rhodesian military history - Moorcraft and McLaughlin - state in the preface of their 2008 edition:
That make one think?... Nevertheless, after nearly three decades, and in the light of the near-total destruction of the state by Robert Mugabe, many will look back and reflect that the Rhodesian rebellion, although doomed, was perhaps not so damned.
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