Hell

As our Declaration of Independence reminds us, governments derive their power from the consent of the governed.

As Salon reminds us, Iraq is hell, and it is hell because we may have weapons, but we DON'T have the consent of the governed.

We have become that which we have traditionally hated.

"Iraq is a place where there is no civil debate and interest groups mediate their conflicts with weapons. The U.S. has the most powerful armed presence, its own military, but as an interest group, it represents the smallest number of Iraqis, possibly only those it directly supports. Political legitimacy, we have long known, comes directly from the people; it is not something that can be dictated by a foreign power, no matter how noble its stated intentions. The Allawi government, the result of American occupation, is what many Iraqis scornfully call a U.S. puppet government. In the months following the "transfer of sovereignty," I never heard a single Iraqi offer up praise for it. Not one."