The most egregious example of Òbiting the hand that saved youÓ occurred when a short-sighted and ungrateful British public ousted Winston Churchill just before Japan fell. Tired of war, Brits traded their nationÕs greatest wartime leader for a smooth-talking socialist with promises.

It was a decision they regretted; five years later, they returned Churchill and his conservative party to power for the next 13 years. Luckily, when the Brits chose the wrong leadership, the war was nearly won so their misadventure with a Liberal government was reversible.

In the most important election in our history, Americans donÕt have that luxury. Unlike the Brits of 1945, we are in an age of weapons of mass destruction, and the outcome of this war will determine the future of civilization; and our children could be faced with horrors weÕve never known.

In the September 2004 issue of The Atlantic, there is a must-read article by Alan Cullison, ÒInside Al QaedaÕs Hard Drive.Ó It outlines how information discovered in a computer used by Bin Laden himself, as well as other Al Qaeda leaders, includes the idea that the sanctity of women, children and the elderly is not absolute. For those so inclined, a simple online search reveals that a spokesman for Al Qaeda, Suleiman Abu Gheith (of the ÒThere are thousands of the Islamic nation's youths who are eager to die just as the Americans are eager to live" fame) has stated, ÒWe have the right to kill four million Americans ø two million of them children.Ó

I donÕt want to terrorize parents into paralysis but I do want to motivate them into action. My plea to AmericaÕs parents is to take the words of these barbarians seriously. They are depraved and certainly evil, but they are not insane. They announce what they intend to do and then they do their utmost to carry out such proclamations, oftentimes successfully.

They have given us fair warning. Although we were unlucky on 9/11, we are luckier this time that the school warning was sounded, with such unbearable sadness, in Russia. Two nine-year-old girls in Beslan were raped before they had their throats slit. An 18-month-old baby was shot in the head. Another fleeing, terrified child was shot 46 times in the back. The death toll was well over 300, half of them children. If this isnÕt warning enough for us to fly into action, IÕm at a loss to describe what might be. Call it a failure of imagination; that of which we were accused for the World Trade Center attacks. We have no such excuse this time.

This is the world in which we live; believe it. It will continue far beyond our presidential election and into the future for, most experts say, decades just as the Cold War did. The difference between that war and this one, however, is that we citizens and our children right here in America are the primary targets of these savages.

Think of their depravity when you insist your community schools have the right plans in place for not only nuclear, biological or chemical attacks (the plans vary), but for actual armed assaults as well. You can help significantly by ensuring that everyone ø children, parents, educators and law enforcement ø know the plan, refine it, practice it and update it as necessary.

There is another way to protect your kids. It is to keep America on an offensive footing against the terrorists, a strategy that President Bush has enacted and has sworn to uphold. It was meant to keep the fight against this enemy away from our shores, because America is too big and too free to protect every inch of its land. We cannot fight this war defensively; we must be on the offense. Since our response to 9/11 began, we havenÕt experienced one attack on our soil or against American assets around the world, while many other countries have.

By keeping these savages on the run and disbanded, unable to plan coherently, their strength in tatters with so many of them killed or captured, it is clear that our governmentÕs strategy is working. We citizens can do our part too.

Now is a time for constancy. If we choose the wrong man to lead us through the most dangerous moment in human history, unlike the Brits in 1945, we Americans may not get a second chance. In the October 10th issue of the New York Times magazine, John Kerry said, astonishingly, that 9/11 ÒdidnÕt change me much at all.Ó Did it change you and your outlook on the world?

As Churchill himself once warned, ÒCheap popularity can prove itself very dearly bought.Ó After November 2, the terrorists wonÕt stop. Neither should we.