President visits ground zero

NEW YORK – President Bush and first lady Laura Bush stood in somber silence on Sunday after laying wreaths at the site where the twin towers of the World Trade Center once soared. He later pledged to make the anniversary “a day of renewing resolve” to remember the lessons of the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

The Bushes set floral wreaths adrift in reflecting pools that mark the former locations of the north and south towers at the beginning of a two-day fifth-anniversary tour that will take them to all three sites of devastation.

They made a slow procession down a long ramp lined with a flag-bearing honor guard made up of firefighters and policemen, making their way four or five stories below ground level. Uttering no words, the Bushes walked hand-in-hand on the floor of the cavernous pit with bagpipes wailing in the background.

Afterward, the Bushes attended a service of prayer and remembrance at nearby St. Paul’s Chapel, greeted firefighters at a firehouse overlooking ground zero and toured a private museum next door that is dedicated to Sept. 11 families.

“Laura and I approach tomorrow with a heavy heart. It’s hard not to think about people who lost their lives on September 11th, 2001,” a tight-faced Bush told reporters outside the firehouse, which was destroyed in the attack and rebuilt. “I just wish there were some way we could make them whole.”

“I vowed that I’m never going to forget the lessons of that day,” he also said, still clutching his wife’s hand. “There is still an enemy out there who would like to inflict the same kind of damage again.”

They were the first stops of nearly 24 hours of observances at the three sites where terrorists wrought death and destruction and transformed Bush’s presidency.

Today he plans to visit with firefighters and other first responders at a firehouse in lower Manhattan; attend a ceremony at the field in Shanksville, Pa., where one of the hijacked planes hurtled to the ground; and participate in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Pentagon. Like at ground zero, Bush did not plan to participate in the official anniversary observances at the other crash sites, intending to avoid the distraction that accompanies a presidential appearance.

Across New York on Sunday, residents marked the day at other ceremonies large and small. From a service of remembrance at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in midtown Manhattan to a chant at a Buddhist temple on Staten Island, New Yorkers observed the somber anniversary with prayer and reflection.

Bush and his wife wore grim expressions as they took their places for the interfaith service at St. Paul’s. The 240-year-old Episcopal church, across the street from the site, escaped damage and became a center of refuge for weary rescue workers.

Even before Bush left Washington, surrogates from Vice President Dick Cheney on down spent the Sept. 11 anniversary’s eve vigorously defending the administration’s record on improving the national defense over the past five years.

“There has not been another attack on the United States,” Cheney said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “And that’s not an accident.”

On television and in newspaper opinion columns, Cabinet secretaries and agency heads sought to make the case that the government under Bush has made important changes that have lessened the risk of attack.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice cited additional security at ports and airports and increased cooperation among intelligence agencies, a point echoed by the nation’s intelligence chief, John Negroponte.

Democrats, however, contend the administration has fallen short because so little cargo is inspected at U.S. ports and chemical plants, and other high-value sites are vulnerable.

“I think we’re in trouble,” said Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean. “We have not pursued the war on terror with the vigor that we should have because we’ve gotten bogged down in this civil war in Iraq.”