Que sera, sera
"It happens all the time. People who are your allies at one time turn out not to be when things change. Unfortunately that's the way of the world." — Robert Korengold, a retired senior US information officer, quoted in an Associated Press wire, September 19.
Admirable restraint
"The response to this unimaginable 21st century Pearl Harbor should be as simple as it is swift — kill the bastards. No I don't mean hunt them arrest them, extradite them and prosecute them in a court of law. I mean a far quicker form of retribution... A gunshot between the eyes, blow them to smithereens, poison them ... and if Saddam Hussein makes so much as a peep, do him, too." — Steve Dunleavy writing in Rupert Murdoch's rag, the New York Post, on September 12.
Making God mad
"The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU [American Civil Liberties Union], People for the American Way — all of them who have tried to secularise America — I point the finger in their face and say, 'You helped this happen'." — The US's answer to the Taliban, fundamentalist Christian preacher Jerry Falwell, on the Christian Broadcasting Network, September 13, speaking about the terrorist attacks.