"Would you like a copy of today's newspaper?" I asked my doctor as we finished up our visit together. "No," she sighed as she turned to walk out of the examination room. "I probably have a copy of some newspaper waiting for me at home that I won't get around to reading. The news is so terrible recently, who wants to read a newspaper anyway?"

The news has been terrible recently.

Terrorist attacks in Bali, France and the Philippines along with the ongoing carnage from suicide bombers in the Middle East have claimed the lives of many innocent people.

U.S. diplomat Laurence Foley was murdered in Jordan by unknown assailants believed to be linked to Muslim fundamentalist leader Abu Sayaff.

In Moscow, 117 civilian deaths resulted from blanketing a theater with an opium-based gas used to anesthetize Chechen terrorists holding over 700 hostages. The terrorists had threatened: "Each one of us is willing to sacrifice himself for the sake of God and the independence of Chechnya…I swear by God that we are more keen on dying than you are on living."

We continue to learn more about John Allen Muhammad, a man characterized by syndicated columnist L. Brent Bozell III as having "affections for the Nation of Islam (not to mention al-Qaeda)," and John Lee Malvo, who together in their jihad against American civilians may have started their reign of terror in Washington State with the murder of a Tacoma woman and a shooting at a synagogue.

It seems as though the whole world is suddenly involved in a war with terrorism.

And it is. But where is it all leading?

During his daily press briefing on Oct 29, General Tommy Franks, the Commander of the U.S. Central Command was asked by a reporter if World War III had begun. Earlier in the week, veteran newsman Walter Cronkite warned that if the United States invades Iraq it could be the ignition point for another world war. "I see the possibility if we do that of really setting forth World War III," he said.

None of this should be a surprise to anyone. We were warned of this possibility less than a year ago by George W. Bush. The president told us that we were entering into a war against terrorism that would be worldwide and not soon over.

In his State of the Union delivered in January, the president said: "What we have found in Afghanistan confirms that, far from ending there, our war against terror is only beginning… Thousands of dangerous killers, schooled in the methods of murder, often supported by outlaw regimes, are now spread throughout the world like ticking time bombs, set to go off without warning."

The president continued, explaining that our enemies were "arming to threaten the peace of the world." He then used the now infamous expression, "axis of evil," to characterize them and conjure up images from another era and of another world war.

His words riveted the nation ten months ago. As the president continues to be proven correct in his initial assessment, his words take on a more ominous meaning. While some pundits decried what he said, claiming it was too heavy-handed, I believe it was because many of them didn't want to face the awful reality of how much the world changed on that single, terrible day in September.

Perhaps now it is starting to sink in.

But then President Bush offered these words of hope: "Steadfast in our purpose, we now press on. We have known freedom's price. We have shown freedom's power. And in this great conflict, my fellow Americans, we will see freedom's victory."

Jesus also warned there would come a time when mankind would "hear of wars and rumors of wars." But then he too added words of hope and encouragement: "See that you are not troubled."

"Real Answers™" furnished courtesy of The Amy Foundation Internet Syndicate. To contact the author or The Amy Foundation, write or E-mail to: P. O. Box 16091, Lansing, MI 48901-6091; amyfoundtn@aol.com. Visit our website at www.amyfound.org.