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Friday, August 14, 2015

Jeb! Running as a George W. Bush Republican

     At the end of the day the family loyalty to his brother may be winning out over any sensible political instincts.

      Trump is brilliantly having it both ways saying:

     1. He's the biggest military hawk in the world

     2. But  claims that he opposed the Iraq war-in 2004 which was a little late, but this is a GOP primary. Facts are surely not the point. 

     Meanwhile Jeb is wrapping himself up in his brother. So Trump can both be the world's greatest hawk and attack Jeb for defending W and the Iraq war. 

   “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."

   Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/08/jeb-bush-defends-george-w-bush-iraq-legacy-iowa-121337.html#ixzz3inkcmjjA

   It did? Really? Jeb is in the minority. I mean what surely was indefensible was Bush and Rumsfeld's disastrous policy of radical overnight de-Baathification. That was a horrendous error that had a great deal to do with the rise of ISIS.

  On the level of game theory there's a very good case to make we'd be better off had Saddam not been deposed.

 "To the contrary, after months of difficulty reconciling the broadly held public view that the Iraq War was a mistake with his own hawkish foreign policy views and an innate unwillingness to rehash and criticize his brother’s record, he has settled on a strategy: unapologetically arguing that the war, however misconceived, brought about an opportunity for a more stable Middle East, one that the current Democratic administration squandered."

“I’m not saying this because I’m a Bush,” he said. “I’m proud of what he did to create a secure environment for our country.”

 Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/08/jeb-bush-defends-george-w-bush-iraq-legacy-iowa-121337.html#ixzz3inlYqtVt

 I'm glad you're proud, Jeb. Not many in the country share your pride. Most people remember your brother's administration as a disaster and not one they're anxious to repeat anytime soon.

 "With 17 of his 21 foreign policy advisers being veterans of George W. Bush’s White House, Bush’s position is no great surprise. And in a wild Republican primary to be decided by a conservative electorate clamoring for a more muscular approach to foreign policy, it might be a smart strategic play."

 “It’s not like you can run a campaign for president and not talk about Iraq,” said Tim Miller, Bush’s campaign spokesman. “We can talk about Iraq on our terms. Terrorism and radical Islam is something the country cares about and certainly Republican primary voters are very concerned about it. He wanted to take the mantle as somebody who’s going to have a strategy and be a leader on it. There’s a primary electorate on our side that’s looking for that.”

"Specifically, Bush focused again on the 2007 troop surge as a “courageous” decision that, he argues, temporarily curtailed sectarian violence within in Iraq; and he blames President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Clinton for removing American troops too hastily and creating the power vacuum that’s allowed ISIS to take root."

“We just washed our hands of the effort,” Bush said. “We declared success and then chaos occurred afterwards.”

 Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/08/jeb-bush-defends-george-w-bush-iraq-legacy-iowa-121337.html#ixzz3inm1VZ9Y

 He skates over the fact that we left based on the timetable that his brother had agreed to.

 "More than anything else Bush said Thursday afternoon here, that statement underlined the political perils of this candidate talking about that war. The words he chose to criticize Obama for bringing U.S. forces home from Iraq too soon evoked decade-old critiques of his brother’s infamous declaration of ‘Mission Accomplished’ in Iraq in a show of bravado aboard the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln in May 2003."

 "Some Bush donors privately question the strategy of Bush focusing attention on foreign policy and, specifically, the Iraq War with his speech Tuesday night in Los Angeles and the forum on national security here Thursday. Even though Tuesday’s speech didn’t begin until after 9 p.m. Eastern time, it garnered significant media attention."

 Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/08/jeb-bush-defends-george-w-bush-iraq-legacy-iowa-121337.html#ixzz3inmgxugS


The idea that the country is going to elect the brother of George W. Bush in 2016 so we cna invade some more countries is rather shocking. Jeb wants to run as the tough guy on ISIS but we wouldn't have an ISIS but for his brother's policies.

UPDATE: Jeb also doesn't rule out use of turture.

http://thinkprogress.org/world/2015/08/14/3691738/jeb-bush-said-the-iraq-war-was-a-good-deal-heres-exactly-what-it-cost/

   

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