As the presidential election approaches, I want to remind readers about the realities of war. But first, some quotes from 2003.

"Tommy Franks and the coalition forces have demonstrated the old axiom that boldness on the battlefield produces swift and relatively bloodless victory. The three-week swing through Iraq has utterly shattered skeptics' complaints."

(Fox News Channel's Tony Snow, 4/13/03)

"The only people who think this wasn't a victory are Upper Westside liberals, and a few people here in Washington."

(Charles Krauthammer, Inside Washington, WUSA-TV, 4/19/03)

A Senior Lecturer at Helderberg, South Africa, Jeff Crocombe writes,

For the first time I have included a lecture on SDA attitudes towards war in my History of the SDA Church class. I have always wanted to, but time constraints mean that there’s always something that I have to grudgingly leave out. This year I made it a priority.

Mr. Crocombe has graciously allowed his lecture to appear here. Let us know what you think.

A Baghdad clergyman estimates that 90 percent of Iraq's Christians, once thought to number over a million, have either fled or have been murdered by Islamic extremists.