Robert Mugabe surrenders.

For more than a decade, Mugabe–a Christian preacher turned Maoist missionary turned president-for-life–has been choking the life out of Zimbabwe. To cover the costs of his war in Congo, Mugabe ordered the invasions of large commercial farms in Zimbabwe in 2000. These farms, some of which I have visited, were beacons of liberalism and modernity. Workers received homes, medical care, training and schooling for their children in addition to their wages. As a result, most workers favored democracy–they had grown up outside of the government system and had not been hoodwinked by it. So guess where the money and votes for the opposition party, the Movement of Democratic Change or MDC, came from? When the ruling party took over the farms, the workers were fired and the equipment seized. The political city-dwellers had no idea how to run a modern farm, so the equipment (even the pipes and power lines) were sold for scrap. So the farm invasions harmed the opposition, wreaked the economy (the farms generated almost all of the nation’s export earnings), and hoovered up millions for Mugabe’s war. Food production fell. Zimbabwe’s remaining croplands barely fed their own owners.

Zimbabwe, once a proud food exporter, starved. Mugabe responded by inflating the currency, but world markets soon caught on. Hyper-inflation and currency collapse marched together for eight grim years.

When the national papers reported the truth, they were bombed and reporters attacked by thugs paid by the ruling Zanu-PF. When foreign reporters covered the tragedy, they were arrested and deported. Even the BBC was banned.

When millions of Zimbabweans trooped to polls to elect new leaders, Zanu-PF threatened them and miscounted their votes. Parliament elections, by-elections, and presidential elections were each “won” by Mugabe’s party by fraud and intimidation.

Now years of quiet diplomacy seem to have made a difference. The Fishmongers Group–a collection of  Western nations including Britain and America–have exerted enough pressure on South Africa, that its president Thabo Mbecki has told Mugabe to step aside. And the word is, he is doing so.

It looks like another victory for democracy, although belated and hard won. The Sunday Times (of London) does not tell us what President Bush’s involvement was. That omission makes me wonder: Is Bush building a pro-democracy legacy that our press corps are too uninterested to record?

The Bush chapter on the fight for democracy in Zimbabwe would make fascinating reading. I hope someone writes it.