Iraq progressing toward democracy, Rice affirms in baghdad

Sunni engagement in Iraq's political process is one important sign of the nation's strengthening democracy, which ultimately will spell defeat for violent extremists, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice declared in series of interviews in Baghdad with US and Arab news media November 11.

Speaking to Al-Iraqiya television, Rice said that what the terrorists fear most is a "Middle East in which their ideology of hatred will no longer thrive... when Iraq claims its place as a democratic and stable country, where Iraqis are able to overcome their differences through democratic processes."