Tuesday witnessed an international tragedy. While it was on American soil, directed at the American people, it instantly became much bigger than that.

The events in New York and Washington were nothing short of disgusting. It was on the scale of a natural disaster, yet there was nothing natural about it and there will be people to blame. The terrorist attacks that took place were against innocent people, and were actions which cannot be reasoned as necessary no matter what the cause, or what the desire is of any group. Images of Palestinians dancing in celebration in the streets of the West Bank just added more poison to a day which showed that humanity has a long way to come.

The world has now seen that an unimaginable event like that can happen anywhere. If the Pentagon could be hit, so could just about anywhere in the world. Borders, oceans and missile defense plans no longer play much of a factor. If there will ever be a World War III, then it will be against terrorism, the enemy from within.

But a quick revenge-motivated response will cause more harm than good. At the time The Echo went to press, the international community was still in shock, still meeting to decide what kind of reaction it could come up with, for this unthinkable event.

The U.S. Embassy in Bulgaria has increased security measures, Bulgarian politicians held emergency meetings, but these are more symbolic actions than anything else. Territorial integrity of Bulgaria is not under danger, nor is that of most countries around the world.

The biggest issue now is how to respond. There has yet to be an enemy identified and quick action against suspects would contradict all that the international community is condemning - the breach of an open, democratic society.

Tuesday's events did not threaten just the United States, they threatened all democratically-based countries around the world. It was not an act as a result of war, or retaliation for a similar attack in a similar situation. But it will cause a war of sorts and retaliation will come.

The world has been coming together in outrage and it must do so further in order to stop this from happening again. The attacks should not be seen as any result of U.S. policy. No policy should warrant the deaths of thousands of innocent people. The attacks were a cowardly act by a cowardly group of individuals.

The international community should not, however, sink to a similar level. An eye for an eye, should not involve the deaths of more innocent people.

This group of individuals, and others like them, should now pay the price to make sure they do not operate again. And it's going to take a world-wide effort to make this happen. Enemy number one is terrorism - an act of disgusting individuals.

Thousands of people have been senselessly lost. The world economy is poised to take a major hit. Why? All because humanity can't live together. It has been a pathetic week.