On a relatively quiet news evening in late December, American Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge raised the national alert status to "high risk" or orange. One envisions the echo of laughter from Bin Laden's cave.
Orange, yellow, green, red. Does it really matter?
To be in the grip of terror is a close relative to a terror attack, with all the anxiety that comes with it, but without the bloodshed. One supposes this is a good thing, since the alternative is, as we saw Sept. 11, 2001, so awful.
However, one can picture al Qaeda, as the saying goes, jerking our chain. One can visualize Bin Laden barking the order to step up the level of terrorist chatter, and let's watch the infidels scatter for cover.
Hence, transportation service is impacted by a fear of flying. Workers in probable high target government buildings, not just in Washington, D.C. but around the globe, are traumatized by the indefinite "what if". Guard dogs roam public buildings.
The terror color chart becomes rather problematic. We become rather fatalistic. My guess is that al Qaeda will hit, and hit when we least expect it. Time is equity in the hands of someone bent on religious mayhem.
My favorite hotel in Moscow is The National, which, one would suspect, would be relatively secure, located as it is across the street from Red Square. However, a suicide bomber blew herself and several bystanders up last month just outside the hotel doors.
Often I have walked through the elegant mall located just outside the Kremlin walls. When I lived in Moscow, I often visited the shops beneath Tverskaya Street on Pushkin Square. In the last few years, deadly explosions have ripped through both.
Should one not visit Moscow? How can one really take security precautions when attacks seem so random, and the only thing that makes them "high value" is the fact that a substantial number of people are gathered around.
When I first went to work on Capitol Hill in December, 1976, one could freely roam the U.S. Capitol Building, from one end to the other. One could traverse the warren of underground passageways. One could pop into virtually any door, merely to say hello.
My office was located on the first floor, Sen. Mark Hatfield's old hideaway, adjoining the Democratic Policy Committee. It wasn't until after a bomb went off outside the Senate chamber in 1981 that metal detectors were put in, and ID pages were required.
Today that grand palace is a near fortress. Concrete barriers block either side of the West front parking area. Where once tourist roamed freely, now they pass through a series of security measures and then are guided every step of the way.
The White House itself is cordoned off from traffic. Just a few years ago the daily hum-drum of D.C. traffic did a dog-leg around Pennsylvania Avenue, passing within feet of the wrought-iron gate. Other security measures are secret, and one can assume numerous and deadly to any intruder.
Who would have thought that one of the more secure places on the planet would be my Kyiv home in the shadow of St. Sofia and a stone's throw away from the old KGB building where ghosts must still reside.
This is all to state the obvious. Terror is not a fad but a condition. It is not a color but a phenomenon.
Though a historic tool, terror attacks were a 20th Century aberration that have become a 21st Century habit. The color charts of Homeland Secretary Ridge represent a photo op, and seem almost a CYA (cover your ass) exercise in case of a strike.
There is no real deterrent to terror other than to take the battle to the aggressors. The problem will not evaporate with time. It needs to be attacked.
Whenever one become a squeamish over the Iraqi War, particularly since no weapons of mass destruction have been found, think of the obvious effect it has had on Libya, Syria, Iran and even North Korea.
While not kinder or more gentler, all four countries have become more or less more reasonable. We're talking baby steps here, but the picture of the fallen dictator, Saddam Hussein, disheveled and humiliated, should be a lesson to any terrorist.
It is the only lesson they will understand.
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