Can we just dispense with the formality of civil society and rid the world of this animal? This is what it means to be the political opposition in Zimbabwe:

The men who pulled up in three white pickup trucks were looking for Patson Chipiro, head of the Zimbabwean opposition party in Mhondoro district. His wife, Dadirai, told them he was in Harare but would be back later in the day, and the men departed.

An hour later they were back. They grabbed Mrs Chipiro and chopped off one of her hands and both her feet. Then they threw her into her hut, locked the door and threw a petrol bomb through the window.

And a four year old niece saw it all. Mrs. Chipiro's husband, when he returned and after trying to put out the fire of his torched homes, went to the police, who falsified a report before rewriting it to say this:

The report said that seven men assaulted Mrs Chipiro "before dragging her in one of the houses and set all three houses on fire". It said that the body showed "signs of assault since all hands and legs were broken". The doctor who carried out the post-mortem described the cause of death as haemorrhaging and severe burns. "These youths are taught cruelty," Mr Chipiro said. "They get used to murdering. They enjoy murdering. They are doing it for money."

The people in Zimbabwe suffer. A "run-off" election approaches and Mugabe wants his power at all costs. His people starve. The seized farms no longer produce. Publications like The New Black Magazine ponder a false premise: what would be better now for Zimbabwe--Mugabe or Smith? How about this? Both are bad, and Mugabe is bad, now, and the Zimbabweans today deserve better than either of them.

Most of the world lives under different forms of tyranny. Burma (Myanmar) suffers at the hands of the Junta. 120, 000 people have died there. More will starve. Try doing business in Russia. Or, try having a sense of humor there. Try being free in China or being a neighbor of China. Try speaking your mind in Canada or Great Britain. Try saying offensive words in France.

America is rare in the world. Freedom, and the rule of law it is based upon, is rare and needs to be protected. It is a quick slide into tyranny and misery. Hugo Chavez demonstrates just how quickly a country can be unmade.

I sit here horrified at the oppressors of the world like Mugabe. Limb chopping and being burned alive in 2008.... it boggles the mind. What should America do? We watch and hopefully, learn, what it means to be free. Intervention would serve America's national interest... No it wouldn't. I know. I know. I would still like Mugabe shot. Now.

Cross-posted at Dr. Melissa Clouthier