WASHINGTON - After making democracy a defining marker for American foreign policy, President Bush got a jolting message from Palestinian voters: Be careful what you wish for.
The United States promoted the democratic Palestinian election that now has produced an upset victory for the militant Islamic group Hamas. The election could install an organization the United States considers terrorist in place of a Palestinian leadership that, while weak, was pledged to work with
Israel and with Washington.
The administration is caught between Bush's clarion rhetoric about spreading liberty even in unlikely places and the reality that self-determination can yield results that appear counter to U.S. interests. That's a challenge the United States may have to confront someday in other places as well, including Iraq, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Central Asia, the Balkans and — closer to home — South America....
Still, the success of religious-based candidates or parties, many of whom are hostile to Bush and opposed to American ideas, is sobering. Muslim religious slates did far better in this month's Iraqi parliamentary elections than did the secular candidates preferred by Washington. Empowered by the U.S.-led overthrow of Saddam Hussein, Iraqi Shiite voters could one day tilt their nation toward
Iran.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060126/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_palestinians_2
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