What kind of world do we inhabit six years after the terrorist attacks of 11 September, in the heart of the United States? American intelligence believes it likely that al-Qaida will conduct big attacks in the future, inflicting huge losses on the world's only superpower.

What kind of Iraq do we see several years after an invasion that began with a "great" lie? No one can predict when the rivers of blood in that country will disappear, after President George Bush made Iraq a chief arena in the confrontation with al-Qaida, although the group trying once again to strike America on its territory.

What kind of Afghanistan do we see today, after the country became the first arena for vengeance over 11 September? Bush imagines that he has uprooted the Taliban, while President Hamid Karzai is unable to give a speech anywhere, in any public place. Once again the Taliban and al-Qaida alliance is becoming strong and they are exerting their power, sending suicide attackers to every region of the country.

Six years after 11 September and the "war on terror," which the US president and the neoconservatives made into a world war, using their own criteria to classify states as good or evil, Osama bin Laden sent his booby trapped "gift" to the American people, who were being informed, in practical terms, that al-Qaida had not disintegrated or disappeared, and that they should give up their democratic system!

To measure the result of the six years that have produced thousands of casualties - mostly civilians - of American bullets and bombs, or the rifles of al-Qaida, the Taliban, or supporters of the organization, with their rockets and swords, and that have spent hundreds of billions of dollars while victims of famine have been forgotten, we have the following:

-America is purchasing tribal sheiks in Iraq to fight al-Qaida, and is falsifying reports to claim that progress has been made in security matters.

-Fifty-eight percent of Europeans don't want the US to lead the world, giving it free rein in every place, and in every crisis, as the "war on terror" has become a pretext to force any state into submission. However, the problem is that al-Qaida and its terror are forcing a marriage between, on the one hand, Europe, which has also paid dearly in this war, and in which extremism and counter-extremism is flourishing, and, on the other, Bush's America, which will leave a bloody legacy for the Democrat in the White House after Bush's departure, and tense relations with allies, and a partnership full of doubt with the increasingly unstable Kremlin.

-In Afghanistan, the poppy crop is flourishing, hundreds of schools are closing, terror is spreading more quickly, and Karzai has increased the number of his bodyguards. Doubts are growing between the US and UK allies, from Helmand to Basra: the former is fighting a withdrawal and the latter is reviewing the costs of a world war, and its share of the losses.

-The stability of Pakistan is another victim of this war, which Washington used to entice President Pervez Musharraf that his credit in the "Alliance Club" would be boosted, while American pressure corners him between the jaws of the extremists in the country, the al-Qaida-Taliban alliance and the opposition to seeing the army take every decision.

Six years after 11 September, the world has become less safe for Americans and others. The only thing that can be understood from the warnings by the CIA is that any time blood or money is spent, it ends in zero squared. Thus, one-third of Americans support speeding up the impeachment of Bush and his vice president, Dick Cheney, while a majority believes that Congress should investigate their activities up to the day before the day that changed the face of the world. If it was too much to expect the Democrats to bring Bush Down before he completes his second term, especially because of the Second Vietnam, i.e. the Iraq war, President Karzai continues to search for the "address" of the Taliban, to invite them to dialogue. Therefore, he acknowledges that a political settlement is the only way out of the cycle of terror in Afghanistan, and that recent years have been wasted, while the US "dream of freedoms" is disappearing.

Meanwhile, former Lebanon hostage Terry Waite has called for dialogue with al-Qaida, but there is another matter that will impact the fate and security of the world, and what a difference between these two hostages - Waite, and five continents that have been forced to be led by US decisions, after Bush classified them as allies or enemies. Even if we assume good intentions on the part of this administration and the evil neoconservatives, no one is ignorant of the fact that the octopus of poverty in the world is spreading, daily attracting more suicide bombers. The laxity in dealing with the conflict with Israel in the region strengthens the fanatics, with al-Qaida at their head.

This will not be changed by drowning minds in false pretexts about sources of financing and weaponry, or seeing the "discovery" of the game of nations and states, based on intelligence organizations, or hunting for "easy tools" that could "defeat" the Americans, i.e. obtain portions of their regional influence.

Six years ago, Bush promised his countrymen safety after "defeating" terror and promised a knockout blow to al-Qaida. Six years after 11 September, bin Laden strokes his beard and hints that he is determining the fate of the Americans, while the organization continues its bloodiness and its plans, from Kabul, Baghdad, Algiers, Frankfurt, and perhaps the heart of America, once again. Ignorance is not restricted to the neoconservatives, and poverty is the channel of hatred and terror, in every place, and oppression is its bullets.