Eight thousand and 20,000. Remember those numbers. On Christmas Day a relative told me Bush was a great president. Christmas, a time of peace and giving, is not the time to discuss such issues. But one needs to start the new year on the right foot.

A recent study reveals how those who watch right-wing media such as Fox News have many misperceptions about the truth. This is the only explanation I can give to my kids as to why their uncle can justify the numbers 8,000 and 20,000. He does not know that approximately 8,000 civilians, men, women and children were killed and 20,000 injured in the Iraq war. Fox News will never tell you that Iraq had no links to terrorism, no weapons of mass destruction, and that Iraq did not pose a threat to the United States. That a multilateral NATO force and diplomacy like we used in Yugoslavia with Milosevic could have taken down Saddam.

Fox News will not tell you that 15 out of 19 Sept. 11 terrorists were from Saudi Arabia where the oil is flowing, not Iraq where the oil does not flow. That Bush’s major goal is to make sure U.S. special interests control and profit from the flow of oil. Those special interests donate heavily to the Bush campaign and thus they control him and therefore our future. They now write our environmental and trade policy laws. Meanwhile our soldiers are dying while their benefits are being cut.

National Guard Reserves are sent on a mission they never agreed to. Money spent on war and unfair tax cuts could have been spent to fix health care. States are broke and cutting funds on education and services.

Jobs have been lost and are at risk. The Afghanistan opium crop, which is funding warlords and more terrorism, is almost back to peak levels. Is Bush great? Fox won’t tell you he ignored warnings, took an extended summer vacation and cut support for antiterrorism just before 9-11.

There is a chance a competent president could have prevented 9-11. No, Bush is not a great president. He fooled us but that does not make him great. Fox News will never tell you these things and they won’t tell you about the numbers 8,000 and 20,000.

David LaBrecque

Orono