Bush delivers farewell speech as closing argument

Days before he passes the torch to Barack Obama, US president George W Bush last night delivered a farewell speech doubling as his final closing argument before history’s judgment.

Speaking yesterday ahead of last night’s speech, the outgoing president said: “Tonight, I’m going to give a farewell address to the American people.”

“I’m going to urge our nation to continue to engage the world with confidence — confidence in the transformative power of freedom and liberty,” he said at the US State Department in a ceremony billed as a “thank you” to the US diplomatic corps but which was chiefly a defence of his foreign policy.