When I hear a meme twice in one day, I feel compelled to address it. Today, that meme is the "you break it, you bought it" with regard to Iraq.

The idea is that because we are to blame for creating the mess in Iraq, we bear the responsibility for fixing it, which means we need to set up shop there and stay for the long haul, the way we did in Germany and Japan (oh, wait–we're still there, aren't we).

While this kind of thinking might work in a store or in interpersonal relationships, countries operate under a unique set of rules. If all you have to do to "own" a country is break it, you might as well just go around breaking a whole bunch of countries and claim ownership by such right. Hell, we should be taking crowbars to our neighbors' cars in joyous celebration of our newfound acquisitory powers!

Countries are not for sale. They ought to be owned by their citizens. And standing in the way of that right to self-determination is not helping us out around the world, whether it's the War on Terror or diplomatic efforts with anyone else. In order to "help" the Iraqis, we need to control their territory. But this is the Iraqi war of independence–they cannot accept a puppet U.S. government any more than Saddam's regime. The interim government lacks leigitimacy, and legitimacy is the only thing a government truly subsists on.

The U.S., on the other hand, is helping the situation out by having destroyed all state institutions and then setting up 12 permanent bases within Iraq. (Don't forget we've irradiated large parts of Iraq and refuse to admit it or clean it up.)

It's wrong, both morally and practically, to pretend that we can install democracy at gunpoint. Democracy doesn't work that way, and more importantly, we have the chance (and we're taking it!) to <i>poison the well forever</i>. We're trying to create a new U.S.-friendly government while we kill civilians and continue to run the world's largest terrorist training camp. These things are not helping the medicine go down.

The question is really, how do we win Iraq? How do Iraqis win Iraq? Are these two victories mutually exclusive? Unfortunately, I think they are.