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Something very strange happened to me this past week. I was seated in my library
chair, mulling over current events, trying to make a few new year's predictions,
which is the custom for commentators. I was concentrating hard, when suddenly
I saw before my eyes a headline from the NEW YORK TIMES. It read, "Congress Votes
to End War; Troops Ordered to Abandon Iraq."

The view changed. Just as in Vietnam three decades ago, I saw Americans clinging
to helicopters, trying to get themselves out of Baghdad along with friendly Shiite
Muslims. There was massive confusion, bombs going off in the background.

And then, I saw pictures out of Afghanistan. Al Qaeda had toppled the new Afghan
government. Marines and soldiers again were hurriedly boarding choppers. It
can't be real, I thought -- but it was.

The next thing I saw was a picture of Palestine, where most of the al Qaeda
terrorists had now gone. The Israeli government was in disarray, reeling under a
series of huge bomb blasts in Jerusalem.

Country after country was falling to the Islamic fascists: Saudi Arabia. Turkey.
Egypt. For the most part, the terrorists simply refused to ship oil, and what
they did ship was priced at over $150 a barrel. It was a worldwide crisis.
Europe quickly signed a non-aggression pact with al Qaeda in exchange for oil.

Then came the most devastating picture of all: panic in the streets of
Washington, D.C., as a dirty bomb exploded not a quarter of a mile from the
Capitol. Huge sections of the city were cordoned off, uninhabitable. Even people
with the best protective equipment suffered serious radiation burns. Projections
were that the area would be off-limits for years. Then came the bombing of the
Holland Tunnel, connecting New York and New Jersey -- then the collapse of the
pillars of the Golden Gate Bridge.

The government threatened retaliation, of course -- but there was no one to
retaliate against. The Islamo-fascists were spread throughout the world, and it
was impossible to strike against all the countries that were harboring them or
being run by them. Osama bin Laden himself appeared on Al Jazeera, boasting
that he had known all along that the Americans wouldn't fight.

By now, most American television was not operating. But I could still get one
channel. Talking heads were arguing frantically over how this could have
happened. One man's voice stood out when he said, "It was all so foreseeable.
Once you rule religion a private matter, and declare all religions alike, no one
in this country could understand the dimensions of a great religious struggle.
No one understood the clash of civilizations or the evil of Islamo-fascism. We
didn't even have the language to describe religious beliefs anymore. Destruction
was inevitable."

And that's when I woke up in a cold sweat.

It was 5:00 A.M. I went immediately to the front door. Good -- the newspaper
was there. I flipped it open. There was nothing in the headlines except the
confirmation fight over Alito, more quibbling over Iraq -- all the usual banter
that goes on endlessly in the press. But as I walked into the house, my knees
were still shaking.

It was only a dream. We're okay, I told myself.

Or are we? BREAKPOINT with Charles Colson