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Source: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/01/20060119-5.html
Cheney: Important to be Consistent about Democracy
(White House) Asked if the electoral success of Hamas and of the Iran-backed fundamentalist parties in Iraq prompted any second thoughts, Vice President Richard Cheney told the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research in New York on Thursday: "I think the basic principle is still sound....There's an unelected group of clerics, basically, that dominate in Iran. They're the ones who have to certify before someone is allowed on the ballot." "Hamas in the Palestinian areas...if you believe in democratic practices, as we do; believe in a freedom agenda for the Middle East, as we do; then I think it's important for us to be as consistent as possible going forward....The President believes very deeply and I share his conviction that the solution to the long-term problems in the Middle East lies in having democratically elected governments in places like Iraq that won't spawn the ideology of hatred and violence that has dominated so much of the region, that will offer people opportunities and hope, and will reduce the prospects for war in the future." "So it doesn't mean you're always going to get a perfect result, but I would argue that we're going to get a much better result out of that process than we have [with] the system that's been in place in the past that has produced the likes of Saddam Hussein, for example, or of Yasser Arafat."