I've become very distressed to see that the official rallying cry to last week's tragic events has become "God Bless America".

I'm not American myself, and so my complaint that this flies in the face of its US constitution's "separation of church and state" carries no weight.

But as a citizen of the world, I can lament at the poor choice of language used to express both comfort and defiance in a time of trouble, which I empathically understand that the statement is trying to convey.

But I can't help but feel that such a response can be perceived and used as some sort of war cry. One side of the field yells "God Bless America". The other hollers back just as defiantly, "Allahu Akbar" (Allah is Great). It makes it sound like the beginning of a 21st century Crusade.

The compassionate response of the American people to help the victims and rescue workers has been overwhelming and touching. But I can't help but bristle when this response is used as evidence of the greatness of the United States of America and is stated as particularly "American". I cannot believe that there is another place on this world where a people would not help their own in a similar way.

When those on the ill-fated flights of September 11,  those in the Pentagon and those in the World Trade Towers that had the time to realize that they were facing near certain death, what did they do?

They didn't call to their loved ones and say "God Bless America". 

They called them and said the only thing that mattered: "I love you".