EDITORIAL - A crime against humanity

Terror came to America Tuesday morning. As people streamed into offices and schools, madmen hijacked four American commercial planes, then crashed two of them into two well-known New York landmarks: the twin towers of the World Trade Center in downtown Manhattan. Minutes later, a third plane smashed into a portion of the sprawling Pentagon in Washington, DC. The fourth plane crashed in Pennsylvania.

In less than half an hour the twin towers were gone, burying in their rubble thousands of people, including hundreds of firefighters and police personnel. About 50,000 people work in the two buildings, which are visited on an average day by up to three times that number. At the Pentagon, nerve center of America’s defense, at least 800 people were missing in the devastation. Nearly 300 people were in the four ill-fated aircraft. The death toll, lamented New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, "will be more than we can bear."

No cause, no faith justifies such mass murder. No condemnation is strong enough for this cowardly atro-city. Those responsible must be made to pay for their crime against humanity. The civilized world mourns with the American nation, with the victims and their families.

At the same time, there is trepidation as the world awaits the fallout from the attack. In unprecedented moves, the United States closed its borders and shut down its airports, cancelling all flights and diverting airborne planes to Canada. The attack is the worst on the United States since Japan’s bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, which left more than 2,000 people dead and drew the Americans into World War II. This time the body count could be 10 times higher.

The United States, the world’s remaining superpower and leader of the free world, is not expected to just grin and bear this terrorism. Jittery people saw the specter of a third global conflagration as the US media called the attack an act of war. Officials vowed to make the perpetrators pay, and to preempt further attacks. As the United States undertakes moves to defend itself, civilized nations can only hope for world peace.