I'm not sure where John Waugh (The Pilot, Sunday, Nov. 30) gets the data to substantiate his claim that George Bush is the worst president of his lifetime. My guess is that he personally disagrees with some of the actions taken by Bush, and for Waugh, that is enough.

There is nothing to support his contention, and only history will reveal where in the rankings Bush will ultimately reside. But one fact stands out among all others. In the words of commentator Alan Caruba, there have been some 11,000 terrorist attacks worldwide since 9/11. Virtually all of them took place outside of the United States. The credit for that goes to Bush, and that fact alone trumps anything the Waughs in this country have to say about the effectiveness of the Bush presidency.

Many people in this country reside in a fairy-tale world where good triumphs over evil just because it is good and where evil regimes can be made to see the error of their ways by dialogue alone. They are not in favor of intelligence-gathering methods like wire tapping, and heaven forbid terrorists be made uncomfortable during interrogation.

If they were alive in the late 1930s, I can envision their support for the inaction of Neville Chamberlain and their strong opposition to the activities of the OSS. Better that we suffer the indignities realized just recently in Mumbai.

It is also worthy to note that those "awful" policies decried by these folks, and by candidate Obama, are now going to be retained by President-Elect Obama.

There are aspects of the Bush presidency that I do not like, but the ability to sleep peacefully in my bed at night is not one of them.

David Kilpatrick

Pinehurst