Welcome to the United States, once the land of freedom, now busy sealing its borders, waterways, and airspace. On July 21, the House voted to extend the Patriot Act for an indefinite period. Prompted by the terrorist bombings in London, the US lawmakers agreed to renew key provisions of the act that were set to expire by the end of 2005. A terrified nation is preparing for the long haul in its fight to terrify terrorism.

So the House voted 257-171 in favor of the Patriot Act, authorising federal agents to use roving wiretaps and to search library and medical records. Anyone attacking a rail or mass-transit vehicle would get 20-year jail term, a 30-year sentence if the vehicle carries nuclear material, and life imprisonment with the possibility of death penalty if anyone is killed in such an attack. One inherent weakness of this tough legislation is that suicide bombers don't live to stand trial for their crimes.

That is the irony of the whole thing! If the weapons of mass destruction weren't found in Iraq, the US invasion has made them prolific. About 400 suicide bombings took place in Iraq since then, not to speak of other cities like London, Karachi, Cairo, and Madrid. There is a deadly bomb ticking in the hearts and minds of suicide bombers who are preparing to strike large populations, God knows where and when.

The United States is ready to do what it can to prevent these attacks. In an interview with WFLA-AM in Orlando, Florida on July 15, Tom Tancredo, a Republican Congressman from Colorado said that the United States could even take out the Muslim holy sites, including Mecca, if Muslim fundamentalist terrorists attacked his country with nuclear weapons. He has been accused of bigotry since then, although some have applauded what he said.

One thing leading to another, the US attack on terrorism has turned into chaos. While Osama bin Laden still remains at large, and Iraq and Afghanistan remain pretty much unmanageable, terrorism today is more prevalent than ever before. The question is what have George Bush and his allies achieved so far in their attack on terrorism? The answer is that they have made terrorism even more terrible.

According to an estimate in February 2002, the total number of people who died in the 9/11 attack stood at 2,843. But this year about 90,000 people died in the United States due to hospital-related infections. According to statistics of 2002: 107,000 people died of accidents, 125,000 died of lower respiratory diseases, 65,000 died of influenza/pneumonia, and 73,000 died of diabetes. Why is the United States so determined to root out terrorism after 9/11?

The easy answer is that it is not number of casualties that is important. What is important is the causality, the attack on a superpower which made it angry. But the hard answer is also believed by many people, that the attack on terrorism is a false pretense to push an agenda of conspiracy. That conspiracy is a campaign to demonise Islam and Muslims for larger Western interests.

The growing coalition between rightwing Christian forces, Zionism, and lately right-wing Hinduism, through defense pacts and other special American ties with India (Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has been recently accorded an unprecedented reception at the White House), resonates with the strategy of George Kennan, the US political analyst, advisor, and diplomat. He stated in his top secret Policy Planning Study 23: "[W]e have about 50 percent of the world's wealth, but only 6.3 percent of its population. Our real task in the coming period is to devise a pattern of relationships which will permit us to maintain this position of disparity. To do so, we will have to dispense with all sentimentality. We should cease to talk about vague and unreal objectives such as human rights, the raising of living standards, and democratization."

Kennan's formulation has been the guiding principle of US foreign policy after World War II, which has shifted ground by forging new alliances and abandoning old ones, manipulating world events, ends always justifying means. When communism collapsed, it was essential to look for new grounds again to justify the large military spending. In 1989 former Defense Secretary McNamara made it obvious before the Senate Budget Committee when he said that the US defense spending could be cut in half.

The military-industrial complex in the United States had two options. It had to undergo massive shifts in spending, which would have been an unwelcome prospect for the defense establishment. Else, it had to find new ways to justify continued high levels of its military expenditures. Hence, the threat of rogue states was invented. The Gulf War was the first contrived opportunity to test this justification with the American people. The justification also appealed outside the United States since it assured protection of oil company profits and the flow of oil to Europe and Japan which needed it much more than the United States.

The concepts of Islamic fundamentalism, radicalism, militancy, totalitarianism, and terrorism fit the bill. The Palestine problem provided the platform as radical militant groups like Hamas and others attacked US embassies and military presence in the Middle East and Africa. Earlier, Ronald Reagan, who has been lionised by the right as the greatest American of all times, even ahead of the likes of Abraham Lincoln and George Washington, presided over the transition. He helped disintegrate the Soviet Union and attacked Libya to set the stage for a new world order.

Talk about the ridiculous rogue states! The International Institute for Strategic Studies reveals that the total US defense budget is $262 billion, which accounts for about 37 percent of global military expenditures. Russia, Japan, and China respectively spend $80 billion, $42 billion, and $7 billion. Whereas the six "rogue states" -- Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Syria, North Korea -- have a combined annual military budget of $15 billion. The US budget for covert operations, a euphemism for US terrorism, alone is double this amount.

While the paltry budget of the rogue states make them unlikely threats to US security, the invasion of Iraq under false pretext and continued support of Israel make it clear that the United States is following the Kennan course, which is a confluence of many opportunities. It justifies the large military budget in the United States, weakens the resurgence of Islam, gives the Christian world a chance to vindicate its defeat in the Crusades, assures Europe and Japan of a stable supply of oil, strengthens Israel against the Palestinian threat, and lastly, rewards India in its rivalry with Pakistan.

The world is bending to a conspiracy, which comes in the rhythms of a new music. George Bush is getting what he wants, the great conductor of the symphony orchestra where the chorus of terrorism blends with the tune of democracy. More arrogance, more terrorism, more security, more suspicion, more violation of human rights, cheating, falsification, intimidation, destruction, and killing! George Bush might rid us of the terrorists, but he is surely going to make off with innocence and decency.

It reminds me of the Pied Piper of Hamelin, who came to rid the city of rats and disappeared with its children. Put more cameras all around us to keep an eye on him. Psst! This Pied Pier lives in Washington.

Mohammad Badrul Ahsan is a banker.