One reason for reading the output of left-wing entities is that many are well funded and thus have the ability to cover subjects that the media don't have the resources to inquire into.  Thus, you get to read about plenty of developments that you wouldn't otherwise be aware of.  They also tell us of what they are afraid of and the things they fear might happen that will affect the credibility of the narrative.

Thus Foreign Policy, a magazine in the stable of the Washington Post, just published an article complaining about how mean the Zimbabwe government is to the American ambassador, who is black.  From that article:

The pro-government Sunday Mail called him an "Uncle Tom" and a "house nigger dressed in a fine suit" – and that was just in his first week on the job.

And:

When the U.S. Embassy here put out a statement in February denouncing the "continuing deterioration of the human rights situation in Zimbabwe," then-[p]resident Robert Mugabe's spokesman responded by suggesting that American critics of the Zimbabwean government, including U.S. [a]mbassador Harry K. Thomas[,] Jr.[] should "go and hang on a banana tree."

It seems that the Zimbabwean government isn't taking the United States very seriously.  The comedy gold is farther down in the article when it mentions that "the United States now feeds roughly a quarter of Zimbabweans with "emergency food aid."  What that looks like is shown in this graph:

Zimbabwe's ills are all self-inflicted, as are Venezuela's (and most other places).  They could feed themselves from their own efforts if they wanted to.  But why bother if the United States is sending them all that free wheat?  All the while, they abuse the American ambassador with racial epithets "that the Ku Klux Klan doesn't even use anymore."

Of course, Zimbabwe was one of the countries that voted in the U.N. to disapprove of the U.S. embassy in Israel moving from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.  China is taking a different approach to Africa.  The Chinese are loading up countries there with debt to pay for infrastructure projects.  Giving Africa free food puts these countries in a better position to service their Chinese debt.

There are the occasional indications from Washington that the reality of the world situation is burning through the narrative.  One of these is the decision to reverse the destruction of stocks of MLRS cluster munitions.  That is one year into the Trump administration.

The situation in Zimbabwe can't go on forever, and so it won't.  One day the foreign wheat will stop arriving, and then a lot of Zimbabweans are going to starve to death.  That day is inevitable.  Continuing to feed them in the meantime means that there might be the perception that the United States owns the problem.  Who knows?  The Zimbabwean government might start treating American diplomatic staff with more respect.

David Archibald is the author of American Gripen: The Solution to the F-35 Nightmare.