However, my serious point is that if the UK can deploy in this case then it is unforgiveable that they turned a blind eye 500 miles further south for many years. Family friends with British passports were murdered and many more were driven out and lost everything. If we have to pick our battles, let's choose very carefully. That is all.
Fg Off Max Stout, your earlier comments deserve a response but this is, I believe, a matter of scale. I don't believe one can say we should ignore a genocide because we didn't react to an series of murders, no matter how tragic. 20 white deaths vs 900,000 black ones? That's one hell of an exchange rate. Whilst the murder of anyone, regardless of passport colour, is to be abhorred approximately 1200 UK passport holders were murdered here in the UK last year. Should we bomb London?
Additionally and as alluded to by others, there is the problem at the ease with which a UK intervention could turn pear-shaped very quickly with the "former-colonial-power" card being played against us. There's no way any op down there would be a short term one so you're correct - we need to pick our battles very carefully. I don't know what the answer to Zimbabwe's ills are off the top of my head but I just don't think we can use that as an excuse to do nothing elsewhere....