ISRAELI WARFARE: We [Israelis] are doing something that no other country would do. . . . We warn the people using Lebanese television, radio and flyers that we spread over the affected areas. We ask the people to leave their homes and get themselves to safety. -- Tzipi Livni, Israeli foreign minister, quoted by Suzanne Fields, townhall.com, 7/31/06

HEZBOLLAH: What so many . . . fail to understand is that there is no "compromise" possible with a group such as Hezbollah whose sole mission is to destroy Israel and eventually every nation and person that they deem to be an infidel. . . . No one questions that Iran is supporting Hezbollah and there is no doubt that Iran is seeking to build nuclear weapons. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that if Hezbollah could launch a nuclear weapon into Israel, they would do so. They have no fear of death and no fear of retaliation. . . . There is nothing that will deter them. There is only one way to stop them and that is to destroy them and prevent the states that support them from having the weapons that they would use to accomplish their goals. -- Jan Larson, opinioneditorials.com, 7/31/06

LEBANON WAR: The word that obviates all thinking and magically inverts victim into aggressor is "disproportionate," as in the universally decried "disproportionate Israeli response." . . . The perversity of today's international outcry lies in the fact that there is indeed a disproportion in this war, a radical moral asymmetry between Hezbollah and Israel: Hezbollah is deliberately trying to create civilian casualties on both sides while Israel is deliberately trying to minimize civilian casualties, also on both sides. . . . Creating human shields is a war crime. It is also a Hezbollah specialty. -- Charles Krauthammer, nydailynews.com, 7/28/06

HEZBOLLAH: Those who believe that Hezbollah is simply an Israeli problem need to think again. . . . Hezbollah is -- and has always been -- America's enemy. -- Oliver North, townhall.com, 7/28/06

LEBANON WAR: The mini war that is taking place between Israel and Hezbollah is, in fact, a proxy war in which Iran's vision for the Middle East clashes with the administration in Washington. What is at stake is not the exchange of kidnapped Israeli soldiers with Arab prisoners in Israel. Such exchanges have happened routinely over five decades. The real issue is who will set the agenda for the Middle East: Iran or America? -- Amir Taheri, quoted by Cal Thomas, townhall.com, 7/27/06

BUSH DOCTRINE: The Bush Doctrine states that governments or organizations that harbor or aid known terrorists are just as liable as the suicidal/homicidal terrorists themselves. . . .If the Bush doctrine is valid, there are only a few questions that need to be answered:
(1) Is Hezbollah a terrorist organization? (2) Which governments are sponsoring, aiding, sheltering, harboring or otherwise supporting Hezbollah? (3) How should Israel respond to the governments that are supporting a known terrorist organization?
If the Bush doctrine is valid then overwhelming, disproportional military force may be unleashed, not only upon Lebanon, but upon Syria and Iran as well. -- Monte Kuligowski, opinioneditorials.com, 7/28/06

HISTORY LESSON: The real lesson of WWII was not failing to try diplomacy and negotiations. The lesson was that America and the West should have moved militarily against Hitler in the mid 1930's. It was already clear that Hitler was rapidly re-arming Germany for a coming war of aggression, but was not yet ready to attack. A pre-emptive attack by the West against Hitler at that time could have destroyed Hitler and his Nazi war machine while still confined to German soil. There would have been casualties on both sides but far, far, fewer than the millions killed later while much of Europe was destroyed.

The world seems inclined to forget the lessons of history rather than learn from them. The West should be supporting Israel's attempt to demolish the Islamic terror threat surrounding them rather than lecturing Israel about its "disproportionate response." Iran and Syria are clearly backers of Islamic terror, not only against Israel but also against America. The longer it takes to deal with them the greater the risk of a wider and more lethal war with an enemy possessing nuclear weapons and the means to reach America. -- Rachel Neuwirth, opinioneditorials.com, 7/28/06

HEZBOLLAH: The problem is that Hezbollah has woven itself into the very fabric of Lebanon, masquerading as a political party much as the Nazis did in Germany. The terrorists have in fact converted an entire nation into a human shield. -- editorial, Investors.com, 7/26/06

JOHN BOLTON vs THE UN: Republicans support Bolton's nomination [as U.S.ambassador to the U.N.] precisely because of his clarity of thought and speech -- and his unapologetic representation of America's interests. Democrats oppose him because they sympathize with the negative view of Bolton held by foreign envoys who have anything but the best interests of the United States in mind. -- David Limbaugh, townhall.com, 7/25/2006

GEORGE W. BUSH: For the next two years, we will continue to have the only President since the Vietnam War who is not an appeaser. . . . George W. Bush is called dumb, but he's smarter than any of his immediate predecessors, because he understands that when your enemy has no scruples, has no vital interests to protect, and desires war, it is absurd to wait for them to get stronger and more dangerous. The trouble is, he lives in a country where, when he wages the most successful, cleanest war, with the soundest military doctrine, in the history of the United States, he is vilified in the press and lied about so incessantly that the people now largely believe that the war has been badly handled. Compared to what war? -- Orson Scott Card, ornery.org, 7/20/06

ISRAEL: Israel has pursued a policy of appeasement for years, giving concession after concession to the Palestinians and their supporters. No matter what they gave in on, two things happened: The Palestinians and their supporters broke every promise, and the rest of the world demanded that Israel make even more concessions.. . . .The only thing that has ever brought concessions from Israel's enemies is victory in war. The negotiating table has never brought Israel even a moment's peace.The opposite is true -- the more they gave in, the more their enemies came to believe in Israel's weakness and the more Israeli civilians they killed. -- Orson Scott Card, ornery.org, 7/20/06

IRAN: Unless the Iranian people get rid of their present government, open war between the United States and Iran is inevitable, because they are grimly determined to force their brand of Islam on the rest of the world, and to kill any who stand in their way. . . . Because of its relationship with Syria, Iran effectively controls both the eastern and western borders of Iraq. Every dead American soldier in Iraq since the initial invasion can be laid largely to the charge of Iran and Syria; they are the reason the insurgents in Iraq are so well-supplied. -- Orson Scott Card, ornery.org, 7/20/06

WAR ON TERROR: Will Americans pay the painful price to win the war on terror? Or will we retreat to our BlackBerrys and iPods and video games? Will we continue to allow partisan politics to divert attention from the real threat, or will we demand that our leaders win the conflict? In the summer of 2006, that is the hot question. And, at this point, there is no clear answer. -- Bill O'Reilly, billoreilly.com, 7/21/06

WAR: There is only one war. It is global in scope and varied only insofar as there are certain and obvious differences among those who seek to wrap their tentacles around the innocent. They are united by their hatred of America and their desire to shatter the West. There is only one war. At some point the West will have to accept that it must either defeat or succumb to its enemies. That is unquestionably a horrible realization. No wonder so many prefer denial. -- Joe Bell, OpinionEditorials.com, 7/21/06

ISRAEL: Will we agree to live under this evil threat or will we fight. . . . There is no more just struggle than that we are now engaged in. . . . And I say to everyone: Enough is enough. Israel will not be held hostage -- not by terror gangs or by a terrorist authority or by any sovereign state. . . . There is nothing we want more than peace on all of our borders; Israel will not agree to live with rockets fired on its citizens. Only a nation that can protect its freedom deserves it. -- Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Israel National News

ISLAMOFASCISM: Much of the world, and unfortunately, much of America, refuses to get it. This is World War III. Islamofascism seeks our destruction -- not accommodation, not conciliation, but complete and total destruction. Islamofascism does not end with the "recapture" of "historic Palestine." Our very existence -- democracy, freedom, religious tolerance and gender equality -- threaten Islamofascism. . . . Nothing short of civilization is at stake. -- Larry Elder, townhall.com, 7/20/06

ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION: There are two dirty little secrets behind the debate over the illegal alien issue that even the advocates of securing the borders first have failed to discuss.The first secret is that the estimated twelve to twenty million aliens living and working illegally in the United States have to commit identity theft to secure employment. The second secret is that without illegals' payroll tax contributions, filed under stolen or fraudulent Social Security numbers, the Social Security system would collapse years earlier than estimated. -- Herman Cain, townhall.com, 7/19/06

GLOBAL WARMING: If global warming is real, and if it is new, and if it is caused not by nature and her cycles but man and his rapacity, and if it in fact endangers mankind, scientists will probably one day blame The People for doing nothing. But I think The People will have a greater claim to blame the scientists, for refusing to be honest, for operating in cliques and holding to ideologies. For failing to be trustworthy. -- Peggy Noonan, opinionjournal.com, 7/20/06

WAR: One would not expect a French president to know that the point of war is a completely disproportionate use of force culminating in victory. For the French, a proportionate response is, presumably, surrender. -- Ben Shapiro, townhall.com, 7/19/06

WAR IN LEBANON: The road to a solution is ... clear: Israel liberates south Lebanon and gives it back to the Lebanese. -- Charles Krauthammer, nydailynews.com, 7/19/06