Jeb Bush blames Clinton, Obama for Iraq's problems
Story highlights
- Bush invoked Ronald Reagan's description of communism to label ISIS "the focus of evil in the modern world"
- Bush sharpened his attacks over the decision to withdrawal combat troops from Iraq
Simi Valley, California (CNN)Jeb
Bush, laying out his strategy to combat ISIS on Tuesday, called for
establishing a no-fly zone over Syria, defeating President Bashar
al-Assad's regime, and embedding U.S. troops with Iraqi forces, all the
while expanding U.S. engagement across the globe.
In
a foreign policy address at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library,
Bush invoked the former president's description of communism to label
ISIS "the focus of evil in the modern world."
The Republican presidential candidate also sharpened his
attacks on President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton for supporting the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraq, a
decision that he said was made out of "blind haste."
"So
eager to be the history-makers, they failed to be the peacemakers,"
Bush said. "Rushing away from danger can be every bit as unwise as
rushing into danger, and the costs have been grievous."
Bush,
a former two-term governor of Florida, vowed to be "unyielding" in the
pursuit to stamp out the "barbarians of ISIS," a strategy that will
hinge on greater military strength.
"I
assure you: the day that I become president will be the day that we
turn this around, and begin rebuilding the armed forces of the United
States," he said.
Establishing
a no-fly zone and other "safe zones" in Syria, Bush said, would not
only aid in the fight against ISIS but would also help protect Syrians
from Assad.
"Defeating ISIS requires
defeating Assad, but we have to make sure that his regime is not
replaced by something as bad or worse," he said, adding that he would
"draw the moderates together and back them up as one force."
54 photos: The ISIS terror threat
In
Iraq, Bush said he would embed U.S. Marines and soldiers with Iraqi
forces rather than simply training them, but he stressed there's no need
at this point for a "major commitment of American combat forces" on the
ground.
He also called for stepping
up support for the Kurdish Peshmerga, providing forward air controllers
on the ground to help make air strikes more accurate, and make "serious
diplomatic efforts" to ensure that the Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds in Iraq
can build a stable government.
"Instead
of simply reacting to each new move the terrorists choose to make, we
will use every advantage we have to take the offensive, to keep it, and
to prevail," he said.
Like Obama has
tried, Bush would also attempt to work with social media companies to
address online recruitment efforts by ISIS on websites like Facebook and
Twitter.
"It's a time when mass
murderers have Twitter handles, Facebook and Instagram pages, using
these to add a veneer of glamor to their exploits," he said.
Over
the course of the year, Bush has been steadfast in blaming Obama for
America's foreign policy woes, attributing the rise of ISIS and other
threats, like Russia and Iran, to what he calls the president's policy
of "pulling back."
His brother, former President George W. Bush, signed the security agreement in 2008 that
called for U.S. troops to leave Iraqi cities by 2009 and be out of the
country entirely by 2011. However, he left it to Obama to determine the
pace of the withdrawal and negotiate any residual force.
Jeb
Bush has also said in the past he favors sending special forces and
embedding them with the Syrian Free Army, though he did not reiterate
that position Tuesday.
Another key
part of his speech was a push to diminish Iran's influence in the region
and a biting critique of the Iran nuclear deal, calling it "a deal
unwise in the extreme, with a regime that is untrustworthy in the
extreme."
"It should be rejected by the
Congress of the United States of America," he said forcefully, adding
that if the deal isn't rejected, he would "begin that process
immediately" of undoing if elected president.
Like
many other GOP presidential candidates, he's called for the U.S. to
join with other Arab nations to create an alliance that goes after ISIS.
That group, he says, would be aided by U.S. air and military power.
Aside
from embedding troops, Bush's proposals so far don't outline a
significant departure from current operations. The U.S., for example, is
already part of a coalition of allies that's hitting ISIS with air
strikes, and it has troops in Iraq training the army there.
21 photos: Jeb Bush's life
Like
other governors running for president, Bush has been studying up on
foreign policy and trying to craft an approach that distances himself
from his brother and father. At a foreign policy speech in Detroit this past February, when Bush was technically in the exploratory phase of running for president, he stressed that he was his "own man."
Critics,
however, were quick to point to the list of Bush's foreign policy
advisers that includes many of the same names that advised George W.
Bush and George H.W. Bush.
The candidate had to play damage control a few months later after he struggled for days to answer whether
he would have gone into Iraq, like his brother, knowing what we know
now about the faulty intelligence that in part led to the war.
Ultimately
Bush said he would not have gone in -- and reiterated that sentiment
last week in the debate, saying it was a "mistake" to invade Iraq -- but
the stumble resulted in weeklong coverage and raised questions about
whether Bush could truly separate himself from his brother's legacy.
In
his speech, he acknowledged the faulty intelligence that led to the war
in Iraq, saying "no leader or policymaker involved will claim to have
gotten everything right in the region, Iraq especially" but he hailed
the 2007 surge as a hallmark moment and "the turning point we had all
been waiting for."
Jake Sullivan,
Clinton's top foreign policy adviser, labeled Bush's speech "a pretty
bold attempt to rewrite history and reassign responsibility."
In
a call with reporters, Sullivan tied the roots of ISIS back to the Bush
administration and said the group did not grow "out of a vacuum" but
rather out of al Qaeda in Iraq, which sprung up because of the Bush
administration's invasion of Iraq and subsequent mistakes, like
disbanding the Iraqi army and banishing Sunnis who later became
insurgents, he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment