In a famous, somewhat apocryphal story, a burglar breaking into a house falls through the skylight on the roof, injuring himself. But rather than being punished for the attempted robbery, the burglar actually sues the homeowner for his injuries. He wins the case, along with a payout from the person he was robbing.

The story has endured as long as it has because of the infuriating upending of the assumed moral order that it represents. It’s outrageous, we think to ourselves, that a victim should be forced to compensate their victimizer for something that happened while they were in the process of being victimized.

And yet that is exactly what the US government is doing to Cambodia.