Gestures won’t stop Mugabe

Re “Facing down the monster,” Opinion, June 26

Timothy Garton Ash fails to recognize that a determined tyrant such as Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe will not be moved by demonstrations abroad and economic sanctions. Suggesting that neighboring countries in southern Africa can deal with him is like imagining that the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg could have handled Hitler.

I welcome the idea of military intervention by Britain, Zimbabwe’s former colonial power. Mugabe needs to be put down now before he murders and tortures any more of his own people. This is no time for old socialist anti-colonial political correctness. The people of Zimbabwe are in desperate need of help.

Jose L. Sanchez

Camarillo