Eager to show it has learned from the slow responses to the Asian tsunami and Hurricane Katrina, the White House announced on Sunday evening that it would provide an "initial contribution" of US$50 million for relief efforts in Pakistan. It also said it would dispatch helicopters and reconnaissance aircraft that are in the area hunting members of al-Qaeda.
The announcement came only hours after Bush spoke to Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and after he held an unusual Sunday-afternoon meeting in the Oval Office with a Pakistani diplomat based here. The speed, a senior administration official said, reflected both the estimates of the death toll and US sensitivity to the desire to bolster Musharraf when his help is badly needed in hunting down Osama bin Laden and repressing Islamic radicals.
"I was just told that this is going to be the worst natural disaster in the nation's history," Bush said after meeting with Mohammad Sadiq, the No. 2 diplomat in the Pakistani embassy.
"Thousands of people have died, thousands are wounded, and the United States of America wants to help," he said.
The response was much quicker than in December, when Bush was at his ranch when the tsunami hit, and did not speak publicly about the disaster for several days. The initial US commitments of aid were small, though they were quickly ramped up.
The administration has also been assailed for its slow response to Hurricane Katrina.
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