AFTER going on-line on Tuesday night, I was overwhelmed by the feelings of grief, despair, anger, disbelief and panic that were being expressed by the citizens of America.

There were people from all over the world offering comfort. I have never seen such a unity between nations and was pleasantly surprised.

I spoke to one lady, obviously upset, who had an aunt working in the World Trade Centre.

Her aunt worked on one of the floors hit by the planes.

Her pain was added to by the fact two of her sons had been called back from leave to go on full war alert.

Other people had friends and relatives working either in the buildings hit or nearby. They were unable to contact anyone as the telephone lines were down and they all felt really afraid, wondering where would be targeted next.

Some were talking of revenge; some were talking about President George W Bush's next move, and would this result in World War Three.

Just reading the words being written you could sense a huge wave of bitterness.

There was more speculation on who they all thought was responsible for the atrocities. Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, Yassar Arafat, they were all mentioned.

What upset me most, as an outsider looking in, was the high number of Palestinians, Arabs, Islamic, Sudanese, Afghans and Lebanese who were on-line sneering at the American people.

Some of their comments were really nasty.

They made the threat that this was only the start of things to come, that America deserved everything they had received and that it should not only be America who should worry, but other countries too, including Great Britain, which are also prospective targets.

So what should America do next? Do they retaliate with force? Do they start a full-scale war? If a war is started, what does that do for the rest of the world? If they do not retaliate, what should they do?

There are so many questions to be answered. Most people in America already have made up their minds.

Whatever the US government decides, it has a long, hard slog ahead.

Although this has been likened to Pearl Harbour, one also has to look at the knock-on effect this will have on the rest of the world.

Stocks and shares will go down, oil prices will go up and tourism will be affected all over the world, just to mention a few.

Let's just hope this is the end of the attacks and let the people of America start to rebuild their lives.

Rebecca Rich

Address supplied