WASHINGTON , D.C. - Crossing the Potomac River bridges each morning gives tens of thousands of northern Virginia commuters plenty of time to ponder the unthinkable evacuating this traffic-clogged city after a full-scale terrorist attack.

Since the awful events of September 11, negotiating your vehicle around town has become an exercise in patience, introspection and survival.

While the patient and thoughtful drivers among us concentrate on making it safely into a downtown garage, the survivalists apparently are fantasizing about living a Jeremiah Johnson existence in the foothills of Appalachia replete with luxury SUV, 250-satellite station TV and a well-stocked larder direct from Sutton Place Gourmet.

Washington drivers used to pray for a winter free of precipitation of any kind. Rain and snow turn the area into one big league demolition derby with major freeways often looking like Rommel's retreat across North Africa.

Now we're also praying for a quick end to global terrorism so authorities will reopen streets and remove thousands of Jersey barriers and oversized cement planters that now seem to block the shortest route to any destination no matter where you are.

Thus far, God has been answering our prayers. We are in our fourth month of record drought, and the unseasonably warm days of November and December have kept our streets dry, clean and unfrozen. The fall of Kandahar is simply a bonus to the glorious fall of 2001.

Trucks laden with dirty, radioactive bombs remain a definite concern to most of us, but survivalists see them as opportunities. We don't worry so much about hijacked commercial jets anymore, knowing that we will all react as patriot-passengers should any attempt to hijack a plane reoccur.

"Let's roll" is the battle cry of this new-age conflict, as we honor the heroes who prevented the fourth hijacked jet from crashing into Washington's hallowed institutions.

This "let's roll"attitude is the closest many of us will ever get to being a true American survivalist, even if it means going down with the plane. There is a big disconnect there, I know, but work with me.

Radioactive truck bombs driven by suicidal maniacs, however, scare us to death. Such an attack on Washington, D.C. would require everyone in the metropolitan region to consider evacuating the entire region.

For most cynics in D.C., the choice between exposure to radioactivity and driving down the Beltway during an evacuation is a difficult one to make.

Survivalists, on the other hand, see these choices as multiple opportunities. The ones who don't head for the hills are investing a small fortune in gas masks, radioactive-proof camouflage clothing, bomb-proof shelters, and other militia-oriented products.

Scientists report, understatedly, that it is difficult to survive in a radioactive environment. These are the same scientists who have determined it would take approximately 2.4 months to evacuate Washington D.C.

So the survivalist that stays behind to protect personal property has no better chance than the one who ends up idling his life way in full-scale evacuation jam-up on the Beltway.

Common sense tells me to sit tight, wear my "These Colors Don't Run" American flag T-shirt, and pop open a nice can of ice-cold Budweiser.

In other words, chill out and leave it to the Marines and, oh, yes the Army, the Navy and the Air Force, too. Judging from their handiwork in Afghanistan, the only ones who need to go into a full-survival mode are the terrorists.

Our government, citizens must always be in survival mode

ARLINGTON , VA -    In the aftermath of 9/11, Americans discovered just how unprepared their government was for terrorist attacks.

They learned that the experts at the Centers for Disease Control did not know that finely milled anthrax spores could escape a sealed envelope or that letters cross-contaminated with even a few spores might kill susceptible individuals. Not only that but:

The Coast Guard is able to inspect only one percent of the cargo containers that enter U.S. ports each year.

The FBI was prohibited by law from sharing intelligence information with the CIA.

The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) does not keep track of foreign students who exceed their visa time or never show up for class.

There were only some three hundred Customs agents to cover the more than three thousand miles of the U.S-Canadian border.

The stockpiles of vaccines for anthrax and smallpox were woefully inadequate to protect even first responders.

Frankly, one of the most important steps Americans can take is to trade in their gas-guzzling SUVs for more economical forms of transportation, thereby reducing the nation's dependence on foreign particularly Middle Eastern oil.

The terrorist threat is real. America is vulnerable. Its survival will depend on taking all appropriate steps to armor the nation and its citizens against terrorism.