Bush defends troubled record in farewell address

By Matt Spetalnick and Tabassum Zakaria

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush on Thursday defended his actions to avert a collapse of the financial system and protect America from another terrorist attack as he mounted a farewell bid to polish his troubled legacy.

Five days before handing over the presidency to Barack Obama, Bush delivered a televised final address to the American people in which he sought to define a White House record that some historians are already ranking among the worst ever.

But even as he focused on what he saw as his successes, Bush was preparing to leave Obama with unfinished wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a bitter conflict in Gaza, a U.S. economy deep in recession and a U.S. image badly tarnished overseas.

"Facing the prospect of a financial collapse, we took decisive measures to safeguard our economy," Bush said from the White House, referring to a massive government intervention he ordered, counter to his free-market roots. "The toll would be far worse if we had not acted."

Trying to reassure recession-weary Americans, Bush said: "Together, with determination and hard work, we will restore our economy to the path of growth. We will show the world once again the resilience of America's free enterprise system."

Obama has said dealing with the economic meltdown, the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression and one that has sent shockwaves across the globe, will be a top priority.

Bush warned, however, that the gravest challenge facing the incoming president remained the threat of another terrorist attack like the al Qaeda strikes on September 11, 2001.

He acknowledged that some of his actions in response to 9/11 had been controversial but he stood by them and reasserted his with-us-or-against-us doctrine widely criticized overseas.