EDITORIAL - The loss of civilian life in any conflict, anywhere, is always tragic. But one fact in war is indisputable, there will be civilian casualties. The tragedy of this fact is multiplied when one of the warring factions violates the rules of war – and the idea of humanity – by using civilian positions from which to wage their aggression. Such is the case with the tactics of Hezbollah. As Union General William Tecumseh Sherman said, "War is Hell."

Some of the more vacuous among the world's population continue to argue that Israel is targeting innocent Lebanese women and children with its airstrikes. They do so in complete denial of the fact that Hezbollah fighters employ the tactic of placing weapons and weapons caches – including missile batteries – among the Lebanese civilian population. They do so in defiance of the inarguable reality that Hezbollah uses civilian locations from which to fire their missiles into Israel, missiles targeting innocent Israeli women and children and not military positions.

Hezbollah is a recognized terrorist organization, people. That this even has to be stated is insane for it exemplifies the lack of knowledge possessed by the majority of the people on this planet.

Hezbollah is not a legitimate political group; they are a group of terrorists that have infiltrated the political process. They provide the Lebanese people with social welfare and infrastructure in an effort to dupe them into voting Hezbollah into legitimacy, all the while harboring the ulterior motive of the conquest and eradication of Israel. One of the true tragedies of this conflict is that the Lebanese people have fallen for this ruse.

Had the political aims of Hezbollah been legitimate, had their quest been peace and prosperity for the Lebanese people, why in God’s name would they have placed – and continue to place – weapons of war among the civilian population? Why would they be positioning missile batteries in civilian neighborhoods and launching them literally from people's homes? Why would these "brave warriors of god" hide behind innocent women and children while they attack the innocent of the world?

The answer to all of these questions is unmistakable clear; they are not the legitimate promoters of peace, the "freedom fighters" their supporters would have the world believe. They are cowards. They are murderers. They are terrorist reprobates who deserve nothing less than to be introduced to all the circles of Dante's inferno.

And while these brokers of slaughter continue on their decades long campaign of genocide against the Israeli people, and those who support them, there are simpletons among us who continue to believe the propaganda disseminated through the mainstream media, propaganda that incites a sympathy for the devil.

The most deviously pigheaded among these simpletons are those who sit in conference at the United Nations, who repeatedly issue statements condemning Israel for defending herself and her people in the face of terrorist aggression, an aggression that has lasted throughout Israel's existence. One needs only to compare the number of UN condemnations issued against Israeli actions to the number of UN condemnations of terrorist actions against Israel to understand just where this ineffective organization's allegiance lays. Given their blatant bias against Israel it is a wonder how they ever realized Israel's right to exist in the first place.

Make no mistake; those who would give Hezbollah – or any terrorist organization for that matter – a seat at a negotiating table only serve to recognize as legitimate these bloodthirsty bands of nefarious cretins while condoning the criminal infiltration and hijacking of the political process in the Middle East.

Only the truly daft can continue to believe that the current conflict between radical Islam and the rest of the world is sparked by the existence of Israel. To that extent, the daft, the deviously pigheaded and the vacuous are complicit in the problem by their ignorance. They, through their refusal to embrace reality, are part of the problem.

As Hezbollah continues their masquerade as a legitimate political entity, it cannot be denied that wherever they exist in the world, pain, suffering, oppression and violence are not foreign. Thus are the consequences for turning a blind eye toward those who employ terrorism as their weapon of choice. And if we continue to deny that we are currently engaged in a battle between good and evil, a battle for the free world, so too will it be our future.