Can democracies go to war?

James Carville once shared with me that we ought to all value the fundamental notion of democracy because, in the modern era, no two democracies have engaged each other in armed conflict, excluding civil wars.

I've never been able to quite confirm the factoid, and there seems to be a lot of gray area (Saddam Hussein once conducted something loosely resembling an election, after ensuring that he would be the only name on the ballot), but I have always accepted the principle as a generally noteworthy rule of thumb.

And so today I am left wondering. The Palestinians have gone to the polls and elected a terrorist regime. Hamas is not just the political faction that advocates for the complete destruction of Israel, it is group that is all too good at following speech with actions – these are the people who encourage each other to strap on explosive belts and find busy Israeli interchanges.

Ann Althouse has a quick piece on George Bush's strained reaction on her site, quoting the President:

When you give people the vote, you give people a chance to express themselves at the polls...and if they're unhappy with the status quo, they'll let you know.

Moreover, news has just broken that the Israeli government has issued a statement saying, rather reasonably, that it will not negotiate with a Hamas government. It has long been the posture of the US and other civilized nations to not negotiate with terrorists and Israel is wholly justified in keeping that rule.

What the Palestinian people essentially said at the polls is that terrorists are not the small portion of the populace we so often hear about but, rather, the formal leadership of the majority. These people have – in overwhelming numbers – made it clear that peace not only lacks priority status but, indeed, should always take a distant second place to murderous terror.

And so I am left wondering if “Palestine” is to be really considered an actual country, much less a democracy. Because, if so, the time may have finally come for two of the world's greatest democracies to declare war on something resembling a democracy.