Almost every day, al Qaeda suspects or affiliated terrorists are arrested somewhere in the world. Islamic fascists blow up Israelis, behead Nepalese, murder Russians children in schools and on the street, and kidnap French journalists (so much for appeasement). They want to destroy trains in New York as they did in Madrid. They seek to ruin democracy in Kabul and Baghdad and take down Russian airliners. Nearly each week they are caught forming cells in Europe and the United States — all akin in their desire for theocracy, incoherent demands, partiality for barbarous methods of killing civilians, and hatred of Western-style liberalism and freedom.

Now we learn that they may well turn their attention to targeted assassinations here at home — in the manner in which Osama bin Laden took out General Massoud of the Northern Alliance on the eve of the September 11 attacks, and like the various efforts to incinerate General Musharraf in Pakistan. The problem is not only that such efforts would be aimed at short-circuiting the nerve center of the United States, but also that previous reckless talk on the part of some cultural elites at home would only accentuate the turmoil.

The 2002 winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, Nicholson Baker, is due out with Checkpoint — an extended dialogue on killing (in a variety of strange ways) George Bush. Last year, comedian Rick Hall played to full houses in the U.K., performing his newest composition, "Let's Get Together and Kill George Bush." A so-called pacifist group announced its sponsorship of a rather violent-sounding off-Broadway "guerilla comedy" entitled, I'm Gonna Kill the President.

This is stupid — and dangerous. Al Qaeda has announced its intentions play on perceptions of Western decadence and nihilism. Should the terrorists strike at our leaders, there will be a national accounting over the failure of those on the left to condemn such extremism. Alfred A. Knopf, for example, is promoting Baker's book as a cris du coeur — "in response to the powerless seething fury many Americans felt when President Bush decided to take the nation to war."

"Seething"? The radical Left is courting disaster and threatens to destroy the credibility of liberals who are apparently fearful of condemning the madness in their midst — this "cry of the heart" to save Saddam Hussein from the wrath of an imperialistic and bullying United States. When upscale protestors swear at delegates and parade obscene signs in New York while John Kerry goes windsurfing in shades and racing gloves, you have a recipe for disaster for wannabe populists.

"After 9/11, there was a glut of imported steel, and the domestic steel mills slowly started going out of business," he said. "Unfortunately, my dad's business was one of them."

Before he went out of business, McStay's dad tried to downsize so he wouldn't have to leave as many workers without jobs. This alternative presented an opportunity for McStay to follow his dream. Since McStay didn't have a family, unlike many of the people who worked for his father, he decided it was time to visit the recruiters. "I still had my childhood dream in the back of my head, and decided I was going to join the military and help save the jobs of the workers who have families," he said. "I walked into the recruiters at 34 and signed up for the infantry."

When McStay's father found out about his pending future in the infantry, he placed a call to the head of recruiting in Ohio to talk the Marines out of putting his son in the infantry. His father was successful in getting the recruiting command to change his McStay's assignment to the air wing.

From the time McStay enlisted in the Marines, until a few days before leaving for boot camp, his father didn't say a word to him. "Right before I left for boot camp, my dad went on a business trip," he said. "When I was dropping him off at the airport, he said we needed to talk." His father gave him some advice, based on his experience as a Marine, which would help him make it through the hard times. "He gave me a lot of really good advice that has helped me throughout my two and a half years in the Marines," said McStay.

Over the past two years, McStay said, his father has come full-circle and is now one of his biggest supporters. "Now my dad is very involved in everything I do in the Marines," he said. Knowing that the Marines isn't going to be a lifelong career, McStay has found the service to be a teacher of life for him in some ways. "By being able to fulfill my childhood dream of becoming a Marine and serving my country, I have learned that life rarely turns out the way you expect," he said. "But at the same time, life will never give you more than you can handle.