More Hamas Hogwash

Okay, so, if a duly, fairly, and democratically elected government in the Palestinian Territories is not one to work with, how will you change their ideology? Can't we take a lesson from working with the IRA and Sinn Fein? Apparently not:

Q Mr. President, Israeli officials are seeking an international boycott of a Palestinian government that includes Hamas. Do you support this? And, if so, isn't that punishing the Palestinian people for exercising the democratic rights that you've called for in the region?

THE PRESIDENT: The Hamas party has made it clear that they do not support the right of Israel to exist. And I have made it clear so long as that's their policy, that we will not support a Palestinian government made up of Hamas. We want to work with a government that is a partner in peace, not a government that is -- whose declared intentions might be the destruction of Israel.

Secondly, this new democracy that's emerging in the Palestinian Territories must understand that you can't have a political party that also has got an armed wing to it; that democracies yield peace. And so the second half of our message to Hamas is get rid of your arms, disavow terrorism, work to bring what you promised to the people of the Palestinian Territories. Listen, these folks ran on the campaign "we're going to get rid of corruption" and that "we're going to provide services to the people," and that's positive. But what isn't positive is that they've got parts of their platform that will make it impossible for them to be a peaceful partner.

Okay, if it is not okay for governments to arm themselves and protect their interests, what the hell does that say for all actions related to the W, Rove and Co. initiated "war on terror?" If democracies yield peace, do you think not working with them is the way to it?