Yesterday we noted The New Republic’s call for intervention in Burma, where a nasty regime has kept it population mired in poverty for decades.

But what of Zimbabwe, which was once prosperous, one of the few African nations that didn’t need our pity or aid?

Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Zimbabweans — orphans and old people, the sick and the down and out — have lost access to food and other basic humanitarian assistance as their government has clamped down on international aid groups it says are backing the political opposition, relief agencies say.