Journey Into Fear
I flew to Baltimore Wednesday afternoon on Southwest, sitting next to a man from the Phillipines. He'd flown 12 hours from Manilla to LA, spent two days there, and then came across the county on Southwest - LA to Las Vegas, Vegas to Nashville, Nashville to Baltimore. He'd never been here before. Wanted to know if there would be snow on the ground when we landed.

We talked about a lot of things. The Beltway sniper. Terrorism and Abu Sayyaf (the Al Qaeda franchise in his country). I never got his name. Thursday, I learned Abu Sayyaf had done some sort of bombing the day before. I hope he had no relatives or friends among the dead. He told me 70 percent of his countrymen are pro-American, and although the U.S. pulled out of its military bases in the Phillipines a few years ago, support for U.S. military presence is rising as Muslim terrorist activity grows.

He told me me Manilla was a very compact city and very densely populated. Congested. I thought a lot about that as the Southwest 737 banked over Baltimore on final approach and I looked out the window at countless homes spread across the hilly, tree-covered landscape on quarter- and half- and full-acre lots, two cars in every driveway. Along the edges of various inlets of the Chesapeake Bay, the shoreline was dotted with dozens of marinas, filled with thousands of sailboats and fishing craft.

The Phillipines is a string of numerous islands. There, boats are transportation. In Baltimore, boats are recreation. As I looked at the window, he did too. I wonder what he thought of America as he saw that slice of it. I wonder what he thought when he looked down and saw Las Vegas. He asked if he had to go through Customs again when he deplaned in Baltimore. No, I assured him. He came through Customs in LA. He was in the country now, free to travel all of it without showing papers at checkpoints. Welcome to America. See as much of as you can in five days.

I rented a car at Hertz and drove to Philly. At the rental counter, the clerk asked if I wanted the fuel option - did I want to prepay Hertz for a full tank of gas so I could leave the car with an empty tank upon my return. Yes! I said, before he finished the question. Doesn't everyone say "yes" to that now if they fly into the Baltimore-Washington DC area? Yeah, he said, almost everyone does.

I took the Nissan Maxima - a very nice car produced by a former enemy we once conquered and then democratized and rebuilt - and drove north, not stopping until White Marsh, 20 minutes or so north of Baltimore and well north of the Beltway sniper's killing zone. Then I stopped for coffee. A routine stop. A normal thing to do.

I parked just outside the front door of the convenience store and stepped out of the car. A normal act in an abnormal time. Hair stood on the back of my neck and I wondered what a bullet felt like, or if I'd feel it at all. I practically ran into the store. Leaving with my coffee, I pushed the door unlock button on the rental car key fob even before I exited the store, and got in as fast as I could. I didn't feel safe until I sped away - passing, incidentally, a clerk who was sweeping the parking lot. Was she scared? Probably a little. But people in Israel live under the gun all the time, and they go about their lives.

What a strange world. Now I understand just a tiny little bit what it's like to live in Israel, to live with terrorism as a regular reality of daily life. I think the Beltway sniper or sniper team is connected to Al Qaeda, and their aim is to wreak havoc on our economy and our society by instilling us with fear for our personal safety. Northern Virginia is a test of the tactic. If it works there, it'll be in your town soon. They're testing us. We're learning about them - and how to take them down. It's Terrorism 101 and we're only in the first grade.

We'll win, but there will be losses along the way. And fear.