What is democracy?

The title should have included an oft-stated assumption: that "democracies" do not go to war with each other. This assumption seems almost intuitively obvious: most people almost all of the time want a peaceful existence and are not motivated to go to war or on any other kind of killing spree. This could mean, for example, that if a plebiscite had been held on Iraq "we" wouldn't be there now. While the "people" might want peace, a small subset of them might opt for war, and our "government" is a very small subset.

I suspect the same is true of Palestinians: they don't want to destroy Israel but many of their leaders do. Of course, I've read that current agreements don't allow the Palestinian authority to have any real power; that awaits the creation of an independent state. But what are we to make of yesterday's resounding victory of Hamas, an organization that "we" consider a terrorist organization? At least one observer is nervous about it.

I've also read that Hamas agreed to limit its election platform to exclude the "death to Israel" part. Perhaps, as in most countries, politicians tone down the rhetoric when power is in sight; they become pragmatic. Not in all cases, of course. In some countries politicians simply use good makeup and we only see their fangs once in power.

It seems that while the Palestinian Authority under years of Fatah control had grown corrupt and was seen that way by Palestinians in the street, Hamas has been constantly and consistently engaged in bringing social services to the masses. So, if the Palestinian "people" have their way and Hamas leads them to statehood will this advance the cause of peace or war? Do you suppose that after decades of impoverishment and disenfranchisement the Palestinians want more violence?

If democracies don't go to war then why are "we" concerned about Iran? Their leaders were elected. One might think that Saudi Arabia would be a greater danger to world peace. After all, most of the 9/11 bombers came from there. And now that I think about it, why was the Bin Laden family escorted out of the US immediately following 9/11? How did they avoid Guantanamo?