I've no doubt that Al Queda is observing the acts of this sick bastard and beaming with surprise and admiration. "Is that all it takes to plunge the cities of the infidels into chaos and terror" Allah be praised! He has given us the example of the crazy sniper to show us the way!

The reaction of many in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington DC to close schools, cancel everything and stay indoors is understandable, but deadly wrong. It sends exactly the wrong message to terrorists. Now they know how to strike fear into the hearts of Americans, disrupt our lives, drive us into our indoor shelters, damage our economy, in short terrorize us.

How should we react? How will we react when Al Queda picks up the tactic and applies it in a dozen American cities (and they certainly will try)

We should try to be courageous, and seek inspiration from the example of 1940 Londoners:

"The Blitz

The first of the big air raids on London were aimed at the industrial areas and docklands mainly, in the East End of London. For the first few weeks, these raids took place by day and night but the Germans soon switched to night time raids only because they were losing too many bombers during the day. Night time defence of London was mainly ineffective. Although the anti aircraft guns gave hope to Londoners, they actually brought down a very small number of bombers. At that time the RAF had no useful night fighter either.

After its initial onslaught on the East End, from mid September the Luftwaffe attacked the rest of London and it was in this period that the famous bombing of Buckingham Palace occurred when the then Queen Elizabeth (later the Queen Mother) made her remark about being able to look the East End in the eye.

Air raids took place almost every night and a large number of German bombers dropped hundreds of tons of bombs on the capital. Typically there were 100 to 200 bombers dropping around 200 tons of high explosive and 300 incendiaries although there were raids with 300 and 400 planes with more than double the amount of bombs dropped.

This bombing took its toll on the fabric of London and disrupted the lives of people there. Roads and railways were damaged and destroyed as was other infrastructure like sewers and gas and water pipelines. Repairs to the city's infrastructure was put at the top of the agenda and they were carried out quickly so the German aim of disrupting London's commerce and industry was greatly frustrated.

The resilience of Londoners in the face of this nightly onslaught has passed into legend. Ordinary men, women and children showed amazing and sustained courage just by carrying on with their daily lives in spite of the nightly bombing raids. In the end, many people became so habituated to them that they just carried on with what they were doing. For example, cinemas would continue to show films during raids and the audience would remain to watch them."