Bush lauds charitable acts; Rumsfeld vows a 'new' war

©New York Times,
published September 19, 2001

[AP photo] President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney join hundreds of White House employees Tuesday on the South Lawn in a moment of silence.

WASHINGTON -- President Bush paid tribute Tuesday to the charities, and to acts of charity, that he said were helping the United States recover from the worst terrorist attack in its history. And Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld promised that America's military response would not compromise the country's values.

"Out of our tears and sadness, we saw the best of America," Bush said at a Rose Garden ceremony. "We saw a great country rise up to help. Tens of millions of dollars and thousands of hours and tons of food and clothing have all been donated to help rebuild shattered lives.

"As president of this great land, nothing made me more proud," Bush said. Earlier, Bush joined 300 White House employees on the South Lawn to observe a moment of silence exactly one week after the attacks began on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Bush sounded far less bellicose Tuesday than he did on Monday, when he said that the United States wanted Osama bin Laden, the suspected terrorist who is widely believed to be behind the attacks, "dead or alive."

Instead, it was Rumsfeld who said at a Pentagon briefing that the United States would prepare for "a very new type of conflict, or battle, or campaign, or war or effort."

"It's not a matter of a single event," the secretary said. "We're talking about a very broadly based campaign to go after the terrorist problem where it exists." It exists, he said, "across the globe."

"The people who committed these acts are clearly determined to try to force the United States of America and our values to withdraw from the world or to respond by curtailing our freedoms. If we do that, the terrorists will have won, and we have no intention of doing so.

"We have a choice, either to change the way we live, which is unacceptable, or to change the way that they live," he said. "We chose the latter."

Also on Tuesday, Bush signed into law a $40-billion package to rebuild after the attacks. And he put his signature to the congressional resolution authorizing him to use military force against those responsible.

He also signed legislation expediting benefit payments to injured firefighters and police, or to the survivors of public safety officers killed in the attacks.

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