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Bush: "Yeah. Well, I just disagree. I think my first duty is to protect the American people.  And I think one who would argue that the world has – would have been better off with Saddam Hussein in power simply doesn't understand the nature of the world in which we live today."

Bush: "Well, Tom, the bigger question should we have removed Saddam Hussein in the first place?"

Brokaw: "But then the answer is what happens afterwards as well –"

Bush: "But, that's easy to second guess. I've never known you to be a Monday morning quarterback like this. Of course we can look back, and history will judge whether we could have done something differently. But you have asked me the question in the context of really should we have removed Saddam Hussein in the first place? And the answer is. Yes, sir. We should've… History will judge whether we could have done things differently after we went into Baghdad. We planned for a lot of contingencies. We planned for major disruptions in oil supplies. We planned for refugee flows. We planned for mass hunger. In a war, not everything goes exactly as planned. But the fundamental question at the heart, to me, of what you're asking, was did we make the right course of action? Did we do the right thing to secure America? And, yes we did."

Brokaw: "This is not Monday morning quarterbacking, on the part of The Economist."

Bush: "I didn't mean to accuse you. I don't want to insult..."

Brokaw: "That's okay, I'm a grownup here…"

Bush: "Okay."

Brokaw: "But, these are legitimate and important questions for the American people. The Economist, which is a well known conservative international publication, said invading Iraq was not a mistake, but changing the regime so incompetently was a huge mistake. It's cost hundreds of lives of American soldiers and thousands of Iraqis. And The Economist then reluctantly endorsed your opponent, Senator Kerry, saying it's a choice between the incompetent and the incoherent and they went with the incoherent."

Bush: "Well, if I worried about editorials, I'd be a nervous wreck. My job is not to try to win the kudos of those who write the editorials. My job is to protect the American people. And we are making progress in Iraq. Iraq is going to have elections. Freedom is moving, freedom is marching forward and the world is better off. And the question in this campaign is who has the ability to protect America. Who has the goal, and the concept and the strategies to keep this country secure. And when it's all said and done I believe the American people will decide it's me."