Bush tours relief warehouse

By LAWRENCE L. KNUTSON
Associated Press Writer

NEW WINDSOR, Md. — President Bush visited a warehouse "full of love and decency"' where the first relief supplies bound for Afghan children and bought with contributions from American youngsters began the long journey Saturday to the war-ravaged country.

``We have given the Afghan children something to smile about because American children are generous and kind and compassionate,'' Bush said at the facility operated by the Church of the Brethren in cooperation with the Red Cross.

``This first shipment represents the good will of the American people and our hopes and desires that the plight of Afghan children improves,'' Bush told more than 100 children and their parents, in addition to relief workers.

Inside 18 large cardboard containers waiting to be loaded into trucks were practical items as well as toys that the Red Cross will distribute: winter hats, wool socks, soap, school supplies, crayons, toothbrushes, hairbrushes, almonds, lollypops, teddy bears.

``Each parcel is marked this way: `A gift to Afghan children from American children.' It's written in several local languages, but ... one spirit is part of each package. And it says ... `Love knows no boundaries,''' the president said.

The outpouring of support from America's children — whose coins and dollar bills sent in response to Bush's appeal have totaled $1.5 million so far — shows that the United States is ``a nation of heart and compassion and a nation that loves freedom,'' the president said.

The supplies gathered ``in a warehouse full of love and decency'' perfectly illustrate that,'' he said.

In the weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, Bush asked America's youngsters to help show that the United States was pursuing terrorists and those who shelter them, including Afghanistan's ruling Taliban, and not the Afghan people.

The relief supplies, Bush said, are ``a reminder that we are at war with the Taliban regime and not with the good people of Afghanistan.''

The supplies were to depart Dulles International Airport in Virginia Sunday on a plane provided by Federal Express.

The White House said Afghanistan's 10 million children have suffered from decades of civil war, drought, hunger and the repression of the Taliban regime. The result, the officials said, is that one-quarter of Afghan children do not live to see their fifth birthdays; a third are orphans and half are underfed.

The shipment also includes 1,500 tents, which the Red Cross says will provide shelter for about 10,000 children and 1,658 winter jackets.

Bush saluted American children for participating in a ``most noble project.''

``There have been bake sales, and there have been lemonade stands, and there are empty piggy banks and there have been all kinds of drives to raise money for Afghan children,'' Bush said.