Breaking Out of the Zimbabwe Impasse

Mugabe deserves demonization, but it's time to move beyond Mugabe-directed moral outrage (see Kirchick and Hitchens) and see that Zimbabwe is now controlled by a junta led by the heads of the security services. There's a great deal of sentimental attachment to Mugabe in Africa. Correctly understanding and characterizing the Zimbabwe regime as a military dictatorship which is using Mugabe, not the other way around, gives an opening for South Africa to intervene. Of course, correctly understanding is also a good thing in itself.