Some neoconservatives wish we would. Here’s Michael Ledeen:

Once upon a time, we had leaders who supported freedom and did everything possible to bring down tyrants. But not today. Today we give feel-good speeches full of politically correct slogans, wrapped in the mantle of multiculturalism and multilateralism. Even [Condoleezza Rice]’s words are feeble. Mugabe is committing mass murder, and has proclaimed that he won’t accept the results of the election if it goes against him. So her call for “free and fair” elections is beside the point. It’s just like the bad old days when the League of Nations fought fascism… while innocents are slaughtered.

Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe, who was carried into office as a hero and reformer, has brutalized political opposition and driven his major political adversary out of the country. Of course, neocons want to make this America’s problem.

Ledeen is not alone. While the Left has beat the interventionist war drums for action in Darfur for some time, the neocon Right–undeterred by sustained troop presence in Iraq and Afghanistan–has now turned its righteous American rifle toward Mugabe. Jamie Kirchick (here and here), CentreRight (which dedicated an entire day to the plight of Zimbabwe), and the editors of National Review join Ledeen in arguing that the cause is worthy of American blood.

Today’s New York Times editorial on the crisis attests that the “Save Zimbabwe” cause has friends outside of the Wilsonian Right. But internationalism on the Left is nothing new.

The real novelty is that the go-it-alone liberators are looking to the United Nations for help. NR wants the UN involved, and if not the blue helmets, then the British should stop “posturing” and get in there themselves. The Right–even the neocon Right–used to rightfully criticize the UN for sending peacekeepers everywhere and achieving progress nowhere. Now they want peacekeepers in Zimbabwe, at the behest of the U.S. government.

Why has Zimbabwe reinvigorated right-wing internationalism? As a neocon friend pleaded, “We just want them to hold an election!” In a word… Democracy. But Zimbabwe is the perfect example of how elections do not produce civilized order, justice, or freedom. Not all the habits of freedom are developed at the ballot box. Unfortunately, this is a lesson neoconservatives are unwilling to learn. That Mugabe so easily rose to power through democratic means doesn’t trouble Ledeen or National Review. Just give them another election. If at first you don’t succeed…

The current crisis in Zimbabwe is, by all accounts, terribly tragic. It should be a cause for concern among Zimbabwe’s neighbors. If America can exercise its influence on the region in a diplomatic manner in order to help alleviate the problems and stabilize the region then it should. But promoting an activist role for the UN and involving troops in another ideological dream is a fool’s game.