http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/09/national/09BUSH.html?searchpv=past7days

November 9, 2001

THE PRESIDENT

Bush Seeks New Volunteer Force for Civil Defense

By DAVID E. SANGER

TLANTA, Nov. 8 — President Bush called tonight for the creation of a volunteer civil defense service and told the American people that the specter of a long war against terrorism within the United States would force the country to confront "new responsibilities, both for the government and for our people."

In a speech here before an invited crowd of police officers, firefighters and postal workers and many of his political supporters. Mr. Bush tried for the first time to describe at length how he believes ordinary life must change in a country that is not accustomed to facing a serious threat of foreign-sponsored violence on its shores.

He said the volunteer civil defense service would help police and fire departments, as well as public health agencies, in times of emergency. Mr. Bush said participants in AmeriCorps, a national service program created by the Clinton administration, and the Senior Corps, would be asked to participate. The White House said it envisioned using 20,000 or more volunteers next year, to perform routine tasks so that emergency workers can pursue more urgent duties.

A similar proposal was introduced this week by Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, and Senator Evan Bayh, Democrat of Indiana.

On Friday, Mr. Bush is expected to ask governors to call up more members of the National Guard to help with airport security in the holiday season. He also created a task force to examine ways citizens could better prepare for terrorism and asked it to report back in 40 days.

Tonight, the president drew a picture of a country that must keep going to soccer and baseball games, to churches, mosques and synagogues but that must also put citizens on the street, much as Londoners stepped out of their homes in World War II to stand up against nightly bombing. But he also called for Americans to trust that their government was up to the task of protecting them and was expanding its legal powers to do just that.

Those words contrasted sharply with the ones Mr. Bush used a year ago, when in the last days of his presidential campaign he complained that his opponent, Al Gore, "trusts government, which stands in stark contrast to our view."

But most of Mr. Bush's talk tonight was meant to be inspirational and help Americans adjust to a new era when normal life goes on against a background of the threat of catastrophic terrorism.

"Life in America is going forward," he said, calling that "the ultimate repudiation of terrorism."

After two weeks of debate in Washington over when and how the government should declare special alerts, Mr. Bush tried to end the argument with a call for vigilant normalcy.

"A terrorism alert is not a signal to stop your life," he said in a large auditorium in the heart of Atlanta, the South's most economically vibrant city. "It is a call to be vigilant, to know that your government is on high alert and to add your eyes and ears to our efforts to find and stop those who want to do us harm."

But Mr. Bush also warned, "There is a difference between being alert and being intimidated, and this nation will not be intimidated."

Speaking before a giant screen that carried the words "United We Stand" and images of police officers and rescue workers, Mr. Bush concluded by invoking the last known words of Todd Beamer, one of the passengers who is believed to have moved against the hijackers on the flight that crashed in Pennsylvania on the morning of Sept. 11. "My fellow Americans," Mr. Bush said, "Let's roll!"

Mr. Bush faced a difficult political task tonight, because he had to argue that the United States was winning the war at home, even while acknowledging that investigators were no closer to solving the mystery of who sent at least three envelopes of anthrax through the postal system.

So far, 4 people have died and 13 others are known to have contracted the disease. And the Bush administration has been forced to fend off criticism that the government's initial response was disorganized, particularly the miscalculations by the Postal Service and health officials about how easily the anthrax could seep out of sealed envelopes.

In private, White House officials have conceded that they sent out contradictory, and sometimes wrong, messages about the precautions Americans should take, and Mr. Bush's talk tonight was partly intended to soothe a nervous country, while urging Americans to keep up their guard.

Mr. Bush did not offer the kind of stark warning his vice president, Dick Cheney, gave two weeks ago when he said that this might be the first foreign war in American history in which casualties at home outnumber those abroad. But the president did liken the battle to World War II, saying, "We are the target of enemies who boast they want to kill all Americans, kill all Jews, and kill all Christians."

He noted, "We have seen that type of hate before."

Recounting his recent visit to a high school in Maryland, the president said he "realized that for the first time ever, these seniors will graduate in the midst of a war in our own country."

He stopped well short of making the kinds of claims of early victories in the war against terror that some cabinet members had made in recent days.

Just today, for example, Attorney General John Ashcroft said the United States had "emerged victorious in the opening battle in the war against terrorism" because "two periods of extremely high threat have passed" without additional attacks. That was the first indication from an American official that the high alert declared last week, amid considerable debate about whether the evidence warranted it, has now been dialed down.

Mr. Ashcroft also said Americans had "endured the videotaped tauntings of Osama bin Laden," a name Mr. Bush never mentioned tonight, and he celebrated the fact that "we have not suffered another major terrorist attack."

Earlier this afternoon, touring the headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention here, Mr. Bush said for the first time that he was "looking at different options" about how to protect Americans against an outbreak of smallpox. Terrorism experts have warned that it is possible for that disease to be spread through American cities.

But Mr. Bush said he was hesitant to back universal vaccination of the American public because of the likelihood that a small percentage of those receiving the vaccine would die.

"I would be deeply concerned about a vaccination program that would cause people to lose their life," he said.

While estimates of mortality from the vaccine vary, roughly one in a million people inoculated could die from the vaccine.

That would mean about 280 deaths in the United States or 70 times more than the four deaths attributed so far to the anthrax attacks. An additional 1,500 could suffer brain damage.

Some of what Mr. Bush said in his speech tonight he has said before, in bits and pieces, as the White House has moved to a war footing. He urged Congress to end a deadlock and send him legislation on airport security and an economic stimulus.

But some was new. The president acknowledged that the image America has abroad needs a lot of improvement.

"Too many have the wrong idea of Americans as shallow, materialistic consumers who care only about getting rich and getting ahead," Mr. Bush said. "But this isn't the America that I know."

He recounted the acts of kindness and faith he has witnessed around the nation in the last two months and argued that from the tragedy of Sept. 11, a better country was emerging.

"The moment the second plane hit the second building, when we knew it was a terrorist attack, many felt that our lives would never be the same," said Mr. Bush, whose own realization came as he was informed of the attack in a second-grade classroom in Sarasota, Fla.

"What we couldn't be sure of then and what the terrorists never expected," Mr. Bush said, "was that America would emerge stronger, with a renewed spirit of pride and patriotism."

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