…’s war. Jeb doubled-down (tripled down? quadrupled down? — we’ve lost count) on his support for the disastrous Iraq War yesterday at a national security forum in Iowa.
Earning him another day of bad press and a lot of raised eyebrows, he told the audience that the “mission was accomplished” after his big brother left office and “taking out Saddam Hussein turned out to be a pretty good deal.”
We have to ask: what revisionist version of history sits on the Bush family bookshelves?
Jeb Bush defended some of his brother’s Iraq war decisions as president while also seeking to pivot the conversation toward warmer feelings some Americans had for George W. Bush in the aftermath of the terror attacks of Sept. 11.
Speaking at a national security forum in Davenport, Iowa, on Thursday, the Republican presidential candidate acknowledged that his brother’s record on prosecuting the war and its aftermath wasn’t perfect as he tried to balance his own outlook and reconcile the implicit connection he has to some of his brother’s unpopular decisions.
“I think people have every right to be critical of decisions that were made,” the former Florida governor said. “In 2009, Iraq was fragile, but secure.”
The “mission was accomplished” when it came to Iraq’s security at the end of his brother’s time in the White House, Bush said.
“That is a fact,” he said. “You can’t rewrite history in that regard.”
Jeb Bush is owning his Iraq War problem.
Bush, wrestling with his brother’s legacy of the war for the second time in three days, again sought to cast blame on the Obama administration for its failure to achieve a “fragile but secure” peace in the region that has been overrun by ISIS militants.
As he did in his speech Tuesday night outlining his own approach to combating ISIS in Iraq and Syria, the former Florida governor and presidential hopeful glossed over his brother’s decision to go to war in Iraq — and while acknowledging that mistakes were made, he seemed to view the war itself in positive terms.
“I’ll tell you, taking out Saddam Hussein turned out to be a pretty good deal,” the former Florida governor told a crowd of roughly 200 people who attended a forum on national security at St. Ambrose College.
Jeb Bush tried a move that encapsulates his foreign policy pickle: He simultaneously defended the prosecution of the Iraq war when his brother, George W. Bush, was commander in chief, and he criticized President Barack Obama’s performance in ending it.
“I’ll tell you, taking out Saddam Hussein turned out to be a pretty good deal,” the former Florida governor said.
The Iraq war has been a tricky topic for Mr. Bush for months. In May he spent a full week waffling over whether he would have backed the 2003 invasion had he known Iraq did not possess the weapons of mass destruction the Bush administration used to justify the offensive.
“Knowing what we know now, I would not have engaged,” he eventually said.
Here, during a foreign policy discussion at St. Ambrose University, Mr. Bush said he’d maintain a strong national defense. Asked what he would do with detainees who remain about the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Mr. Bush replied: “Keep ’em there.”
Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush said today that the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq to topple Saddam Hussein was a “pretty good deal.”
Bush was speaking at an event sponsored by Americans for Peace, Prosperity and Security (APPS), a group formed and backed by a number of people associated with major defense contractors.
Jeb Bush on Thursday said “taking out Saddam Hussein turned out to be a pretty good deal,” but then added he didn’t want to get into hypotheticals about what would’ve happened had the U.S. (under his brother) not invaded in 2003. “Then that’s back to the future and you could make a movie,” Bush said at a national-security forum hosted by Politico. The Republican presidential candidate said the 2007 “surge” left Iraq in a “fragile but secure” state, but that President Obama’s withdrawl of U.S. forces paved the way for the rise of ISIS.
Published: Aug 14, 2015