Bush says strategy to remove Saddam Hussein was the "right decision", a little more than a week before the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq.

SHOWS: (W4) NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE UNITED STATES (MARCH 11, 2008) -  U.S. President George W. Bush insisted on Tuesday (March 11) it was a good idea to remove former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and invade Iraq.

In a speech to religious broadcasters sprinkled with references to faith and occasionally interrupted by shouts of "amen" from the audience, Bush delivered a mostly upbeat assessment of a troop build-up he ordered in early 2007.

He spoke a little more than a week before the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, which polls show most Americans believe was a mistake.

"The decision to remove Saddam Hussein was the right decision early in my presidency, it is the right decision at this point in my presidency and it will forever be the right decision," Bush said at the Opryland country music complex.

Bush's comment came amid a new outbreak of deadly attacks that have underlined the stark challenges the United States still faces in the unpopular war in Iraq despite an overall drop in violence over the past year.

"I wish I didn't have to talk about war," Bush said. "No president wants to be a war President. But when confronted with the realities of the world, I have made the decision that now is the time to confront, now is the time to deal with this enemy, and now is the time to spread freedom as the great alternative to the ideology they adhere to."

Violence across Iraq has dropped 60 percent since 30,000 extra U.S. troops became fully deployed in June and Sunni tribal leaders decided to turn on Sunni Islamist al Qaeda.

But a recent spate of attacks shows that Iraq is far from safe. At least 46 people were killed in violence across Iraq on Tuesday, security officials said.

A roadside bomb killed three U.S. soldiers and an interpreter northeast of Baghdad on Monday, the same day a suicide bomber killed five U.S. soldiers in the capital. Total U.S. military deaths are approaching 4,000.