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No one should deny that Iraq will form a legitimate government one day. The real question is what the form of that government will take. Thanks to a variety of factors, the likelihood of an American-style democracy in Iraq is slim. Additionally, the government formed in Iraq right now is not legitimate because it is incapable of self-support and propagation.

An important definition of terms revolves around the meaning of "legitimate government." Legitimate, derived from the Latin "legitimare" (to make legal), means "conforming to the law" according to the Oxford English Dictionary. However, law is derived from something more, something absolute: from the natural rights to life, liberty, and property that John Locke observes. Frederick Bastiat, in The Law, takes it a step further when he claims that everyone has a natural, individual right to defend his person, liberty, and property, and that law is the organization of the fundamental right to lawful defense of individual rights. If this is the case, only a government that defends individual rights through a political system is legitimate.

A government such as the current Iraqi government does not have the ability to support itself individually or enforce its laws, and can easily be labeled a puppet government. Many examples of this situation can be observed in history. The Vichy French government was subverted to victorious Nazi Germany, European nations behind the Iron Curtain were subject to the U.S.S.R., and Japan was controlled by the United States for several years following World War II. The situations are not always oppressive, but sometimes preparation for the puppeted nation to succeed without the puppeteer. An example is the U.S. occupation of the Philippines in the first half of the 20th Century, a situation where the occupiers developed infrastructure, building roads, schools, and telegraph lines, and then provided degrees of autonomy to the Philippine government. Eventually, the Philippines attained full independence through a smooth transition of power.

Of course, we cannot expect that the eventual transfer of power in Iraq will create an Americanized democracy. The cultural heritage of the Arabic people is tribal, with a history of strong, patriarchal leaders. Although dictatorship is not necessarily a result, legitimate Iraqi government will probably be fairly centralized and consolidated. Additionally, the three clashing cultures in Iraq (Sunni, Shiite, and Kurdish) would create a state more like

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