If you can't beat them, starve them

If you want to be shocked at what the international community will allow to happen without intervention, Zimbabwe is a good candidate to look at. A country once considered the bread-basket of Africa, it has been hard hit by famine ever since white land-owners were forcibly driven out of the country and their land handed over to political favorites who knew nothing about farming. Switching from being a net exporter of food to a subsistence level of farming was but one of the many problems Robert Mugabe has given his country.

Now, in the grip of this famine and in the wake of a less-than-favorable election, somply beating, burning and torturing the rural citizens who were accused of voting for the opposition is not enough. With power over the centralized distribution of food comes the ability to distribute food to your supporters, but not the opposition.

The upcoming election will almost certainly fall to Mugabe, not the opposition. It will be a farce, an outcome determined by force, torture, rape, and starvation. But will the international community have the courage to denounce it as such... or will it "accept the will of the people" and treat Mugabe as a legitimate winner?