This Is Why Democracies Don't Fight

Generally, democracies don't go to war. There are, of course, exceptions, like Israel's assault on Lebanon this summer. But generally, democracies don't go to war because they don't want to.

Two democratic countries, considered enemies by all and potential combatants by some, have been pulled back from potential conflict - not by the UN, not by international mediation, but by their own indigenous democratic processes.

I'm referring, of course, to the U.S. and Iran. While neither country saw its warlike leader up for reelection, midterms in both countries have repudiated nationalist policies. The results of the U.S. elections are well known. Iran's election returns are coming in today, with victories for moderate conservatives.

Iran is not a full democracy by any stretch of the imagination. Parties and candidates must be approved by a central council, civil society is constrained, sometimes brutally. And Mahmoud Ahmedinejad is a brute. But it should be apparent that even this severely limited version of democracy is preferable to the alternative - even if the "alternative" (the Shah, for instance) is U.S.-friendly.