"With all the actions we've taken these past eight years, we've laid a solid foundation on which future presidents and future military leaders can build," Bush told thousands of cadets at West Point, the premier officer training institution for the Army.
On topics as diverse as Iraq, veterans care, education, and AIDS relief, Bush has been using his final days in office to try to help shape how he is remembered. He kept quiet during the long election season, mainly to avoid stepping on the message of Republican John McCain.
Bush lauded his own administration, saying it had beefed up and reshaped its intelligence community, cut off the assets of terrorist groups, and employed diplomacy to attract world partners. He even gave a rare shout out to his former defense secretary, Donald H. Rumsfeld, for leading the charge for a more nimble military.
Bush sacked Rumsfeld midway through his second term.
With the presidential pulpit still his, Bush went so far as to essentially spell out an agenda for his successor, Democrat Barack Obama.
Bush implored the next government to stand with dissidents who support freedom, and provide all needed help to US troops and their families.
"We must be determined and we must be relentless to do our duty to protect the American people from harm," Bush said.
Obama has pledged to end the Iraq war and employ diplomacy more often than Bush.
Many of Bush's critics say his military approach has had disastrous consequences for the United States, embroiling it in war, angering allies, and running up enormous debt.
Before Bush leaves, he is determined to tell a different story.
The president said that after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the United States saw the urgency of staying a step ahead of its enemies.
The policy became known as the Bush doctrine. It says that the United States treats those who harbor terrorists the same as terrorists; that threats must be confronted before they are carried out; and that freedom, if promoted, can counter ideologies of hate.
Yesterday, recounting the run-up to the Iraq war, Bush again tied Iraq to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Independent reviews have long discredited any such link.
"After seeing the destruction of September 11th, we concluded that America could not afford to allow a regime with such a threatening and violent record to remain in the heart of the Middle East," Bush said. He said a coalition of nations acted to liberate Iraq.
Bush said that terrorists have been "severely weakened" during his tenure, citing the disruption of plots against the United States and the capture of key Al Qaeda operatives.
Yet seven years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Al Qaeda's leader, Osama bin Laden, remains at large. So does his top deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri.
