The Bottom Line on Mugabe

Cros nails it:

"Mugabe is placing a very simple bet. He is betting that nowhere in the UN or the African Union is there enough of a commitment to democracy, human rights, or anything decent that would compel them to do the hard work necessary to drive Mugabe from power. Thabo Mbeki doesn't want to get involved, and at the UN, China and Russia will claim that doing anything would violate Zimbabwe's "sovereignty."

"If anyone wanted to prove him wrong, now would be the time. Personally, I think this is the sort of thing that calls for Stone Cold John Bolton, but the multinationalists are convinced that quiet, less confrontational diplomacy is the way to go.

"Fine. Mugabe needs to go. Prove it."

Obviously I'm not exactly a John Bolton, "let's bomb Iran" fan, and I believe in multilateral negotiations. But we should be clear that what the US and alot of other countries consider to be negotiation are verbal circle jerks and they should be held accountable for their impotence. There is a line between outright invasion and futile rhetoric and we need to find it and hold it with the same intensity that the net roots can summon for FISA, and the Neo-cons can summon for military intervention. To do that you need dedication and resolve, two traits that are lost in the UN.