Is Chris Matthews making a profound point about self-determination and democracy, or has he gone off an end deeper than even Cindy Sheehan has so far ventured into?

Discussing the Iraqi insurgency with Pat Buchanan on this evening's Hardball, Matthews had this to say:

"We know it for a fact that the country is about 20% Kurd, 20% Sunni and about 60% Shia.  In any democratic process you put together, the Shia will run the show.  Here's the question: who are we to say that the minority group, the Sunnis, shouldn't rebel?  Who are we to say they shouldn't try to rebel against the majority of the people?"

Continued Matthews: "I'm asking a simple moral question. We can tell the people under our system of government . . . what to do.  What right have we got to go into another country and tell those other people what to do?"

Buchanan was happy to agree: "We have no right."