With the Senate Committee report testifying that there are lessons to be learnt from Mumbai terror attacks and that a Mumbai-like attack on America by Lashkar-e-Toiba cannot be ruled out, the United States of America is inching towards reality. Describing India as the sponge that protected the USA and the western world, the Senate acknowledged that LeT posed a very real danger to the global security.

In fact, I was shocked when President Barack Obama said that he would go after the Al Qaida. I was surpirsed that the USA could not see terrorism beyond Al Qaida. In doing so, the USA would have addressed only part of the terror threats that it has to deal with in the days to come. To imagine that the USA has ruffled feathers only in Afghanistan and that there is no threat to the USA from any other quarter would have been myopic, to say the least.

The United States of America, the United Kingdom, Israel and scores of their allies who teamed up against Iraq and Afghanistan and their stands on Gaza, Iran and other contentious may have antagonized fundamentalists far beyond Al Qaida. In the time to come, there might be polarization amongst Islamic nations and even Islamic nations that allied with the US operations in Iraq and Afghanistan may be targeted.

The bomb blasts in the Mariott Hotel in Islamabad last year exposed the vulnerability of citizens belonging to the USA and European nations for the first time. The fact that citizens from the USA, the UK, Israel and other countries were singled out during the Mumbai terror attacks is an indication of the changing target of these terror outfits.

No matter how many attacks were carried out in India, things did not matter on the world level. When citizens from the USA and western nations were hit, the world woke up to the terror threat that is looming large. This forebodes a change in the philosophy and targets of these assailants who have been evolving and changing all the time. Now, they know where to hit to get maximum leverage.

The anger vented by the Iraqi television journalist on George Bush is also indicative of a simmering resentment against the USA in that country. The surgical operations that are being carried out in the North West Frontier Province in Pakistan may elicit reactions from Taliban that the USA once helped raise to drive out the Russians from Afghanistan. The US intervention Afghanistan is not to the liking of outfits like the Al Qaida.

The main terror outfits that the USA and its allies need to watch out for in the days to come may be: Al Qaida, Lashkar-e-Toiba and Taliban. But, these may not be the only terror outfits from which all the terror is likely to originate. New outfits are raised and disbanded day in and day out to hoodwink security agencies.

India may not be the ultimate target of these militants. India bore the brunt of terror attacks for all these years. But, that is not to mean that India is the main target of these terror outfits. Let us not forget that India is home to the second largest population of Muslims in the world and that many Muslims in India have come out openly to condemn these attacks reiterating that these attacks are un-Islamic.

As local support for terror from across the border wanes in India, these fundamentalists are likely to look for new frontiers and territories to test their training and indoctrination. They might carry terror to those countries that they think have been targeting Islamic nations. The USA and the western world offer a ready target for them because of what may be sold to these militants as anti-Islamic activities of these countries.

It is just that India happens to be in the vicinity of the terror capital of the world and the powers that be in that country have used some issues to stoke anti-India feelings amongst extremists. The funds that were disbursed by the Bush administration to Pakistan for crushing terror outfits in Pakistan were diverted for terrorist attacks on India and to finance an army build up along the Indian border. The USA should not be surprised if it boomerangs on them as well.

Pakistan has cleverly manipulated the fundamentalists in the country to carry out terror campaigns in India. For Pakistan the proxy against India costs much less and it helps divert the attention of the masses from the gross misrule of the country that has led to multifarious problems.

India is a soft target. It is also close to the home of these fundamentalists who are being trained for militancy. So, it might have been chosen to assess the effectiveness of their training before they are sent to missions across the seven seas. That might be the reason why they come to Mumbai via the sea route this time.

The Mumbai terror attacks mark a watershed in terror attacks on India. Never before has terror attacks been so elaborately planned and so ruthlessly executed. The terrorists were not merely trained as terrorists. Their training was no less than that of commandos.

For decades, the USA just refused to lend an ear to what India had to say about these terror attacks. It got a taste of terror when 9/11 happened. But, that still did not change much on the ground. The USA just shut itself and felt secure in its fortification.

But, now, the USA and the western nations can no longer afford to ignore the warning signals that are emanating from these terror outfits. All their citizens cannot remain in their own countries.

In fact, the USA and its allies have to be imaginative in preventing terror attacks. In the 9/11 attacks on the US, passenger planes were used as weapons. In London airport, liquid bombs would have used if they were not detected on time. In the press conference of George Bush, shoes were used as missiles. There is no end to the ingenuity of these attacks. As the US Senate admitted, India may have been the sponge that protected the USA and the western world from terrorist attacks. But, that may no longer be so.