What will it take?

I don't know anyone who works at the Fountain Place tower in downtown Dallas. Least I don't think I do. Thankfully, I'm not sitting here today sifting through a long list of names of those killed by a terrorist's bomb this week, looking for ones I know.

But I will be soon. So will you.

The 9/11 Commission came to the correct conclusion years ago that terrorists, namely Al Qaeda, had been at war with us for some time but that we simply had not been at war with them.

They still are. But are we?

Oh, we're aware. To be sure, the FBI and CIA are.

I've lost count of the number of plots uncovered and squelched over the last eight years. But there have been six disrupted very recently. One in Philadelphia. Another in New York. One in Springfield, Ill. One in Denver. One in Quantico, Va.

And one right here in Dallas.

I just don't think we, as in you and me, are all that concerned. Why this doesn't scare the living crap out of everybody is mind-boggling.

This would-be Dallas bomber wasn't just a talker. He wasn't trying to hatch a plan.

He actually parked a truck loaded full of explosives in the Fountain Place building's underground parking garage, then moved to a secure location and attempted to detonate the bomb.

Fortunately, his bomb was a fake, provided to him by undercover FBI agents posing as an Al Qaeda cell.

"Scary" and "unnerving" are terms I've seen and heard used by people today.

Sorry, but I have to imagine that if that had happened several blocks away, in my building, I'd be a bit more than "unnerved."

No, the bomb didn't go off. No, there aren't several hundred funerals in the planning stages this weekend. So why the fuss, right?

How many more Hosam Maher Husein Smadis are there?

This guy was an illegal alien living down in tiny Italy, Texas. He was arrested 13 days before his attempt at "jihad" (aka mass murder) for having no driver's license and no insurance, yet was released the same day.

Did anyone ask if he was here legally? Did anyone check?

Probably not, because we certainly don't want to infringe on anyone's imagined "rights" by enforcing our laws.

Will the question be asked how he arrived in the U.S. two years ago? It wouldn't surprise me if he crossed the Mexican border.

Next to stories Friday about Smadi was one detailing our government's plan to cut border control agents along the Mexican border despite the fact that in the last year, agents have intercepted 530 aliens from "special interest" countries (those identified as countries that pose a terrorist threat), including three persons linked directly to terrorism.

You see, despite what far too many people want to think and say, illegals are not solely a bunch of harmless little fuzzy creatures simply seeking a better life.

And given the percentage of our border that remains unsecured, for reasons I cannot begin to fathom, I'd say the probability that many, many more Smadis have snuck through is rather high.

And if that's so?

An IRA terrorist once told a British official, "I only have to be lucky once. You have to be lucky every day."

We got lucky here this week, as did folks in five other cities. But what about tomorrow? Next week?

A friend asked me the other day, "What do you suggest we do? Live in paranoid fear? Never leave our houses?"

Not at all.

But a large number of people need to wake up to reality. This world is teeming with fanatics who want nothing more than to kill us. All of us. Conservatives and liberals. Black and white. Rich and poor.

And we seem hell-bent on making the job far easier than it should be, whether by supporting policies that make no sense or simply refusing to give a damn.