I do not think that anyone among the liberals feels anything except revulsion for Mugabe at this point.
The problem here, as with the criminal neglect of their own people by the ruling junta in Burma, is that it’s hard to see a clear way to march into the situation. In both of these cases, it would amount to the UN (or NATO, or whomever) essentially declaring war on the government in control. In the past, that has been done on very rare occasions: an example that kind of worked was Iraq (the FIRST Gulf War); and an example that kind of didn’t was also Iraq (the SECOND Gulf War). Especially given the mess made of Iraq in the Second Gulf War, it’s hard to generate the courage to go back for more.
There has been worldwide denunciation, including by the U.S. and the U.K. One voice that has been sadly lacking is that of Mbeki, the President of South Africa: possibly the one voice that would actually make a difference, given the economic ties between South Africa and Zimbabwe. Yet one more reason that Mbeki will go down in history as a colossal failure, as a leader and a human being. (The other is his insane level of inaction on AIDS in his own country.)
