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Story highlights
Bush doesn't want to "re-litigate" old rows over brother's wars
Democrats already planning Iraq war offensive
But Obama missteps could help GOP
(CNN) —
Another Bush is confronting the seemingly endless challenges of Iraq.
Nearly 25 years after his father launched the first Gulf War and almost 12 years after his brother began a much more contentious sequel, it’s Jeb Bush’s turn to articulate his vision of America’s approach to the Middle East – and Iraq in particular. How he responds will have big implications for his White House ambitions.
On Wednesday, he delivered his first foreign policy speech since signaling his serious interest in running for president next year, laying out “how America can regain its leadership in the world.”
The remarks come as the United States is again being drawn back into the Middle East, including Iraq, to combat the brutality of the Islamic State. The speech offered Bush a chance to show whether his national security views align more with the swaggering interventionism of his brother or the cautious internationalism of his father.
Democrats are vowing to tether him to the controversial decisions of his brother, President George W. Bush, who they blame for starting a war in Iraq on false pretenses and for presiding over a disastrous occupation that cost trillions of dollars, thousands of U.S. and Iraqi lives and destabilized the region.
The challenges of addressing his family’s foreign policy legacy are clear to Bush, who is already trying to defuse them.
“I love my father and my brother. I admire their service to the nation and the difficult decisions they had to make,” Bush said Wednesday. “But I am my own man – and my views are shaped by my own thinking and own experiences.”
But he also projected them as a strength, calling himself “lucky to have a father and a brother who have shaped America’s foreign policy from the Oval Office.”
Photos: Potential 2016 presidential candidates
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has said his decision to run for the Republican nomination will be based on two things: his family and whether he can lift America's spirit. His father and brother are former Presidents.
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Photos: Potential 2016 presidential candidates
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has created a political committee that will help him travel and raise money while he considers a 2016 bid. Additionally, billionaire businessman David Koch said in a private gathering in Manhattan this month that he wants Walker to be the next president, but he doesn't plan to back anyone in the primaries.
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Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is establishing a committee to formally explore a White House bid. "If I run, my candidacy will be based on the idea that the American people are ready to try a dramatically different direction," he said in a news release provided to CNN on Monday, May 18.
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Justin Sullivan/Getty Images/File
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Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont who caucuses with Democrats, has said the United States needs a "political revolution" of working-class Americans looking to take back control of the government from billionaires. He first announced the run in an email to supporters early on the morning of Thursday, April 30.
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On March 2, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson announced the launch of an exploratory committee. The move will allow him to raise money that could eventually be transferred to an official presidential campaign and indicates he is on track with stated plans to formally announce a bid in May.
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South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham has said he'll make a decision about a presidential run sometime soon. A potential bid could focus on Graham's foreign policy stance.
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Scott Olson/Getty Images
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Hillary Clinton launched her presidential bid Sunday, April 12, through a video message on social media. She continues to be considered the overwhelming front-runner among possible 2016 Democratic presidential candidates.
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Sen. Marco Rubio announced his bid for the 2016 presidency on Monday, April 13, a day after Hillary Clinton, with a rally in Florida. He's a Republican rising star from Florida who swept into office in 2010 on the back of tea party fervor. But his support of comprehensive immigration reform, which passed the Senate but has stalled in the House, has led some in his party to sour on his prospects.
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Lincoln Chafee, a Republican-turned-independent-turned-Democrat former governor and senator of Rhode Island, said he's running for president on Thursday, April 16, as a Democrat, but his spokeswoman said the campaign is still in the presidential exploratory committee stages.
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Jim Webb, the former Democratic senator from Virginia, is entertaining a 2016 presidential run. In January, he told NPR that his party has not focused on white, working-class voters in past elections.
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Vice President Joe Biden has twice before made unsuccessful bids for the Oval Office -- in 1988 and 2008. A former senator known for his foreign policy and national security expertise, Biden made the rounds on the morning shows recently and said he thinks he'd "make a good President."
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New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has started a series of town halls in New Hampshire to test the presidential waters, becoming more comfortable talking about national issues and staking out positions on hot topic debates.
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Rep. Paul Ryan, a former 2012 vice presidential candidate and fiscally conservative budget hawk, says he's keeping his "options open" for a possible presidential run but is not focused on it.
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Sen. Rand Paul officially announced his presidential bid on Tuesday, April 7, at a rally in Louisville, Kentucky. The tea party favorite probably will have to address previous controversies that include comments on civil rights, a plagiarism allegation and his assertion that the top NSA official lied to Congress about surveillance.
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Texas Sen. Ted Cruz announced his 2016 presidential bid on Monday, March 23, in a speech at Liberty University. The first-term Republican and tea party darling is considered a gifted orator and smart politician. He is best known in the Senate for his marathon filibuster over defunding Obamacare.
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Democrat Martin O'Malley, the former Maryland governor, released a "buzzy" political video in November 2013 in tandem with visits to New Hampshire. He also headlined a Democratic Party event in South Carolina, which holds the first Southern primary.
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Republican Rick Perry, the former Texas governor, announced in 2013 that he would not be seeking re-election, leading to speculation that he might mount a second White House bid.
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Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, a social conservative, gave Mitt Romney his toughest challenge in the nomination fight last time out and has made trips recently to early voting states, including Iowa and South Carolina.
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Political observers expect New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to yield to Hillary Clinton's run in 2016, fearing there wouldn't be room in the race for two Democrats from the Empire State.
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Bush is wading into foreign policy at a crucial time, when it appears that public opinion on issues of war could be shifting.
A new CNN poll shows that Obama is beginning to pay a price for the lurid execution videos posted by ISIS and the group’s widening footprint through the Middle East and North Africa. Disapproval of Obama’s management of the ISIS crisis has climbed from 49% in late September to 57% now, potentially providing an opening for Republicans to push for tougher foreign policy.
And Bush will slam Obama’s foreign policy as “inconsistent and indecisive,” pointing out that Obama’s foreign policy has made the U.S. less influential despite Obama’s promise to engage leaders around the world, what Bush will dub “the great irony” of Obama’s presidency, according to excerpts.
But Bush is nevertheless likely to find himself pulled into a debate over conflicts initiated by George W. Bush that still vex U.S. policymakers and remain an open wound in American politics.
Democrats
Democrats insist they won’t let Bush get away with his pledge to not re-litigate old wars.
“If you thought George Bush’s foreign policy made the world less safe, then you’re going to really hate Jeb Bush’s approach,” said Mo Elleithee, communications director of the Democratic National Committee. “Even with the benefit of hindsight, he’s one of the few people left who still stands by the decision to rush into a war in Iraq based on false information, even when it took resources away from the hunt for al Qaeda in Afghanistan. And he’s made it pretty clear that if he had his way, we’d still be in Iraq and staying there indefinitely. “
Democrats believe George W. Bush created a mess abroad and voters will not buy attacks on President Barack Obama by his brother.
“The bulk of what we know of Jeb’s foreign policy experience is his steadfast refusal to criticize his brother when his brother was in office,” said Ben Ray of the progressive PAC American Bridge. “On Friday, I think you saw him take an unsustainable position. That is not how presidential politics works.”
Bush’s past statements on his brother’s presidency are already powering the Democratic attacks.
“During incredibly challenging times, he kept us safe,” Bush said at the Republican National Convention in 2012.
In an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union” in March 2013, Bush said: “The war has wound down now and it’s still way too early to judge what successes it had in providing some degree of stability in the region.”
’Til death do us part
A 2010 CNN interview in which the Bush brothers appeared together could provide Democrats even more fodder. During the interview, Jeb said “I have never disagreed with (George W. Bush)… ‘til death do us part.”
There are deeper reasons why Bush will find it hard to skip a full discussion on Iraq or Afghanistan. Neither war produced a clear-cut U.S. victory and both nations still face intractable political, military and sectarian challenges, including the rise of ISIS and the resilience of the Taliban, which will be among the most pressing foreign challenges for the next president.
The politics of the Iraq war, meanwhile, remain toxic, and disputes over the origins of the conflict – which have never been resolved – cloud the debate over how to rescue Iraq from its current plight.
Even people who worked for his brother believe Jeb Bush needs to address Iraq soon.
“There is no question that Gov. Bush has to talk about Iraq at some point,” said Peter Feaver, who was a leading official responsible for Iraq on George W. Bush’s National Security Council and is now at Duke University. “Those questions will be asked of him and he has to have an answer.”
Kori Schake, who also worked as a senior foreign policy aide in the Bush administration, agreed.
“I do think he is in a vulnerable position on Iraq because of his last name,” she said, conceding that the public perception of the Bush legacy on foreign policy was a wider problem for his party, not just Jeb Bush.
“Conservatives, Republicans have to rebuild public confidence in what we say we are going to do,” said Schake, now at the Hoover Institution. “That is a high hurdle but it is an achievable hurdle.”
Bush can take several approaches.
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Wounded passengers are treated following a suicide bombing at the Brussels Airport on March 22, 2016. The attacks on the airport and a subway killed 32 people and wounded more than 300. ISIS claims its "fighters" launched the attacks in the Belgian capital.
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Ketevan Kardava/Getty Images
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Syrians gather at the site of a double car bomb attack in the Al-Zahraa neighborhood of the Homs, Syria, on February 21, 2016. Multiple attacks in Homs and southern Damascus kill at least 122 and injure scores, according to the state-run SANA news agency. ISIS claimed responsibility.
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STRINGER/AFP/Getty Images
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Syrian pro-government forces gather at the site of a deadly triple bombing Sunday, January 31, in the Damascus suburb of Sayeda Zeynab. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack, according to a statement circulating online from supporters of the terrorist group.
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LOUAI BESHARA/AFP/Getty Images
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Yemenis check the scene of a car bomb attack Sunday, December 6, in Aden, Yemen. Aden Gov. Jaafar Saad and six bodyguards died in the attack, for which the terror group ISIS claimed responsibility.
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Wael Qubady/AP
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Investigators check the scene of a mosque attack Friday, November 27, in northern Bangladesh's Bogra district. ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack that left at least one person dead and three more wounded.
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AP
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Wounded people are helped outside the Bataclan concert hall in Paris following a series of coordinated attacks in the city on Friday, November 13. The militant group ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks, which killed at least 130 people and wounded hundreds more.
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YOAN VALAT/EPA/LANDOV
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Emergency personnel and civilians gather at the site of a twin suicide bombing in Beirut, Lebanon, on Thursday, November 12. The bombings killed at least 43 people and wounded more than 200 more. ISIS appeared to claim responsibility in a statement posted on social media.
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Bilal Hussein/AP
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Smoke rises over the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar on November 12. Kurdish Iraqi fighters, backed by a U.S.-led air campaign, retook the strategic town, which ISIS militants overran last year. ISIS wants to create an Islamic state across Sunni areas of Iraq and Syria.
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Bram Janssen/AP
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Syrian government troops walk inside the Kweiras air base on Wednesday, November 11, after they broke a siege imposed by ISIS militants.
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SANA/AP
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Members of the Egyptian military approach the wreckage of a Russian passenger plane Sunday, November 1, in Hassana, Egypt. The plane crashed the day before, killing all 224 people on board. ISIS claimed responsibility for downing the plane, but the group's claim wasn't immediately verified.
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Maxim Grigoriev/Russian Ministry for Emergency Situations/AP
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
An explosion rocks Kobani, Syria, during a reported car bomb attack by ISIS militants on Tuesday, October 20.
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Gokhan Sahin/Getty Images
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Shiite fighters, fighting alongside Iraqi government forces, fire a rocket at ISIS militants as they advance toward the center of Baiji, Iraq, on Monday, October 19.
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AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP/Getty Images
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Smoke rises above a damaged building in Ramadi, Iraq, following a coalition airstrike against ISIS positions on Saturday, August 15.
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AP
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Iraqi men look at damage following a bomb explosion that targeted a vegetable market in Baghdad on Thursday, August 13. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.
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AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP/AFP/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
In this image taken from social media, an ISIS fighter holds the group's flag after the militant group overran the Syrian town of al-Qaryatayn on Thursday, August 6, the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported. ISIS uses modern tools such as social media to promote reactionary politics and religious fundamentalism. Fighters are destroying holy sites and valuable antiquities even as their leaders propagate a return to the early days of Islam.
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From ISIS
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
An ISIS fighter poses with spoils purportedly taken after capturing the Syrian town of al-Qaryatayn.
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From ISIS
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Smoke rises as Iraqi security forces bomb ISIS positions in the eastern suburbs of Ramadi, Iraq, on August 6.
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AP
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Buildings reduced to piles of debris can be seen in the eastern suburbs of Ramadi on August 6.
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AP
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
The governor of the Asir region in Saudi Arabia, Prince Faisal bin Khaled bin Abdulaziz, left, visits a man who was wounded in a suicide bombing attack on a mosque in Abha, Saudi Arabia, on August 6. ISIS claimed responsibility for the explosion, which killed at least 13 people and injured nine others.
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Saudi Press Agency/AP
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Saudi officials and investigators check the inside of the mosque on August 6.
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Saudi Press Agency/AP
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Mourners in Gaziantep, Turkey, grieve over a coffin Tuesday, July 21, during a funeral ceremony for the victims of a suspected ISIS suicide bomb attack. That bombing killed at least 31 people in Suruc, a Turkish town that borders Syria. Turkish authorities blamed ISIS for the attack.
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Gokhan Sahin/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Protesters in Istanbul carry anti-ISIS banners and flags to show support for victims of the Suruc suicide blast during a demonstration on Monday, July 20.
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YASIN AKGUL/AFP/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
People in Ashmoun, Egypt, carry the coffin for 1st Lt. Mohammed Ashraf, who was killed when the ISIS militant group attacked Egyptian military checkpoints on Wednesday, July 1. At least 17 soldiers were reportedly killed, and 30 were injured.
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Ashour Abosalm/AP
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Syrians wait near the Turkish border during clashes between ISIS and Kurdish armed groups in Kobani, Syria, on Thursday, June 25. The photo was taken in Sanliurfa, Turkey. ISIS militants disguised as Kurdish security forces infiltrated Kobani on Thursday and killed "many civilians," said a spokesman for the Kurds in Kobani.
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Halil Fidan/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Residents examine a damaged mosque after an Iraqi Air Force bombing in the ISIS-seized city of Falluja, Iraq, on Sunday, May 31. At least six were killed and nine others wounded during the bombing.
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Sami Jawad/Xinhua/SIPA
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
People search through debris after an explosion at a Shiite mosque in Qatif, Saudi Arabia, on Friday, May 22. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack, according to tweets from ISIS supporters, which included a formal statement from ISIS detailing the operation.
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EPA/STR/LANDOV
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Iraqi soldiers fire their weapons toward ISIS group positions in the Garma district, west of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, on Sunday, April 26. Pro-government forces said they had recently made advances on areas held by Islamist jihadists.
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AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
A member of Afghanistan's security forces stands at the site where a suicide bomber on a motorbike blew himself up in front of the Kabul Bank in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, on Saturday, April 18. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack. The explosion killed at least 33 people and injured more than 100 others, a public health spokesman said.
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Stringer/AP
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Iraqi counterterrorism forces patrol in Ramadi on April 18.
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Stringer/AP
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Thousands of Iraqis cross a bridge over the Euphrates River to Baghdad as they flee Ramadi on Friday, April 17.
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Ali Mohammed/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Yazidis embrace after being released by ISIS south of Kirkuk, Iraq, on Wednesday, April 8. ISIS released more than 200 Yazidis, a minority group whose members were killed, captured and displaced when the Islamist terror organization overtook their towns in northern Iraq last summer, officials said.
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Ali Mukarrem Garip/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
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Kurdish Peshmerga forces help Yazidis as they arrive at a medical center in Altun Kupri, Iraq, on April 8.
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SAFIN HAMED/AFP/Getty Images
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A Yazidi woman mourns for the death of her husband and children by ISIS after being released south of Kirkuk on April 8. ISIS is known for killing dozens of people at a time and carrying out public executions, crucifixions and other acts.
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Feriq Ferec/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
People in Tikrit inspect what used to be a palace of former President Saddam Hussein on April 3.
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Khalid Mohammed/AP
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
On April 1, Shiite militiamen celebrate the retaking of Tikrit, which had been under ISIS control since June. The push into Tikrit came days after U.S.-led airstrikes targeted ISIS bases around the city.
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AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Iraqi security forces launch a rocket against ISIS positions in Tikrit on Monday, March 30.
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Khalid Mohammed/AP
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
The parents of 19-year-old Mohammed Musallam react at the family's home in the East Jerusalem Jewish settlement of Neve Yaakov on Tuesday, March 10. ISIS released a video purportedly showing a young boy executing Musallam, an Israeli citizen of Palestinian descent who ISIS claimed infiltrated the group in Syria to spy for the Jewish state. Musallam's family told CNN that he had no ties with the Mossad, Israel's spy agency, and had, in fact, been recruited by ISIS.
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Ahmed Gharabli/AFP/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Iraqi Shiite fighters cover their ears as a rocket is launched during a clash with ISIS militants in the town of Al-Alam, Iraq, on Monday, March 9.
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Thaier Al-Sudani/Reuters
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Displaced Assyrian women who fled their homes due to ISIS attacks pray at a church on the outskirts of Damascus, Syria, on Sunday, March 1. ISIS militants abducted at least 220 Assyrians in Syria.
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LOUAI BESHARA/AFP/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Safi al-Kasasbeh, right, receives condolences from tribal leaders at his home village near Karak, Jordan, on Wednesday, February 4. Al-Kasasbeh's son, Jordanian pilot Moath al-Kasasbeh, was burned alive in a video that was recently released by ISIS militants. Jordan is one of a handful of Middle Eastern nations taking part in the U.S.-led military coalition against ISIS.
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Nasser Nasser/AP
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
A Kurdish marksman looks over a destroyed area of Kobani on Friday, January 30, after the city had been liberated from the ISIS militant group. The Syrian city, also known as Ayn al-Arab, had been under assault by ISIS since mid-September.
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BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Kurdish people celebrate in Suruc, Turkey, near the Turkish-Syrian border, after ISIS militants were expelled from Kobani on Tuesday, January 27.
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BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Collapsed buildings are seen in Kobani on January 27 after Kurdish forces took control of the town from ISIS.
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Rauf Maltas/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Junko Ishido, mother of Japanese journalist Kenji Goto, reacts during a news conference in Tokyo on Friday, January 23. ISIS would later kill Goto and another Japanese hostage, Haruna Yukawa.
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Toru Hanai/Reuters/LANDOV
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
ISIS militants are seen through a rifle's scope during clashes with Peshmerga fighters in Mosul, Iraq, on Wednesday, January 21.
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Emrah Yorulmaz/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
An elderly Yazidi man arrives in Kirkuk after being released by ISIS on Saturday, January 17. The militant group released about 200 Yazidis who were held captive for five months in Iraq. Almost all of the freed prisoners were in poor health and bore signs of abuse and neglect, Kurdish officials said.
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AP
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Smoke billows behind an ISIS sign during an Iraqi military operation to regain control of the town of Sadiyah, about 95 kilometers (60 miles) north of Baghdad, on Tuesday, November 25.
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AP
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Fighters from the Free Syrian Army and the Kurdish People's Protection Units join forces to fight ISIS in Kobani on Wednesday, November 19.
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Jake Simkin/AP
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A picture taken from Turkey shows smoke rising after ISIS militants fired mortar shells toward an area controlled by Syrian Kurdish fighters near Kobani on Monday, November 3.
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ULAS YUNUS TOSUN/EPA/Landov
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Iraqi special forces search a house in Jurf al-Sakhar, Iraq, on Thursday, October 30, after retaking the area from ISIS.
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HAIDAR HAMDANI/AFP/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
ISIS militants stand near the site of an airstrike near the Turkey-Syria border on Thursday, October 23. The United States and several Arab nations have been bombing ISIS targets in Syria to take out the militant group's ability to command, train and resupply its fighters.
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BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Kurdish fighters walk to positions as they combat ISIS forces in Kobani on Sunday, October 19.
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Gokhan Sahin/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Heavy smoke rises in Kobani following an airstrike by the U.S.-led coalition on October 18.
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Gokhan Sahin/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Cundi Minaz, a female Kurdish fighter, is buried in a cemetery in the southeastern Turkish town of Suruc on Tuesday, October 14. Minaz was reportedly killed during clashes with ISIS militants in nearby Kobani.
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Gokhan Sahin/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Kiymet Ergun, a Syrian Kurd, celebrates in Mursitpinar, Turkey, after an airstrike by the U.S.-led coalition in Kobani on Monday, October 13.
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Lefteris Pitarakis/ap
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Alleged ISIS militants stand next to an ISIS flag atop a hill in Kobani on Monday, October 6.
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Aris Messinis/AFP/Getty Images
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A Kurdish Peshmerga soldier who was wounded in a battle with ISIS is wheeled to the Zakho Emergency Hospital in Duhuk, Iraq, on Tuesday, September 30.
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Hadi Mizban/AP
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Syrian Kurds wait near a border crossing in Suruc as they wait to return to their homes in Kobani on Sunday, September 28.
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MURAD SEZER/Reuters/Landov
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A elderly man is carried after crossing the Syria-Turkey border near Suruc on Saturday, September 20.
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BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images
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A Kurdish Peshmerga fighter launches mortar shells toward ISIS militants in Zumar, Iraq, on Monday, September 15.
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AHMED JADALLAH/Reuters/Landov
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Kurdish Peshmerga fighters fire at ISIS militant positions from their position on the top of Mount Zardak, east of Mosul, Iraq, on Tuesday, September 9.
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JM LOPEZ/AFP/Getty Images
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Displaced Iraqis receive clothes from a charity at a refugee camp near Feeshkhabour, Iraq, on Tuesday, August 19.
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Khalid Mohammed/AP
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Aziza Hamid, a 15-year-old Iraqi girl, cries for her father while she and some other Yazidi people are flown to safety Monday, August 11, after a dramatic rescue operation at Iraq's Mount Sinjar. A CNN crew was on the flight, which took diapers, milk, water and food to the site where as many as 70,000 people were trapped by ISIS. But only a few of them were able to fly back on the helicopter with the Iraqi Air Force and Kurdish Peshmerga fighters.
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Warzer Jaff/CNN
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Thousands of Yazidis are escorted to safety by Kurdish Peshmerga forces and a People's Protection Unit in Mosul on Saturday, August 9.
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Emrah Yorulmaz/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Thousands of Yazidi and Christian people flee Mosul on Wednesday, August 6, after the latest wave of ISIS advances.
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Mustafa Kerim/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
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A Baiji oil refinery burns after an alleged ISIS attack in northern Selahaddin, Iraq, on Thursday, July 31.
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A Syrian rebel fighter lies on a stretcher at a makeshift hospital in Douma, Syria, on Wednesday, July 9. He was reportedly injured while fighting ISIS militants.
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Children stand next to a burnt vehicle during clashes between Iraqi security forces and ISIS militants in Mosul on Tuesday, June 10.
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STRINGER/IRAQ/reuters/LANDOV
He could argue that avoiding a rehash of the fierce war debate may actually help move the nation on and focus on the best way to tackle ISIS as it spreads across the Middle East.
That might be beneficial because the current foreign policy disputes in Washington seem still mired in a perpetual blame game.
“When you ask: ‘What is the appropriate U.S. response to ISIS?’ half the people in Washington answer: ‘George W. Bush broke Iraq and ISIS was born in the rubble. There would be no ISIS if it weren’t for him.’ ” Peggy Noonan wrote in her Wall Street Journal column earlier this month. “The other half answer: ‘When Barack Obama withdrew from Iraq, ISIS was born in the vacuum. There would be no ISIS without him.’ “
Obama’s missteps
Bush seems to be happy to engage in war talk if it centers on Obama’s missteps, which may offer him a chance to turn the conversation on Iraq away from simply yet another fight over his brother’s legacy.
At the Detroit Economic Club earlier this month, Bush warned that Obama’s failure to arm rebels in Syria and insufficient attention to Iraq left a void for jihadism.
“As we pulled back from the Middle East, look what happened,” he said. “Look what happened with ISIS in Syria. Look what happened with ISIS in Iraq.”
And on Wednesday he will made the case for unapologetic leadership on the world stage coupled with a strong military, “because I believe, fundamentally, that weakness invites war…and strength encourages peace,” according to excerpts.
Presidents George W. Bush, George H. W. Bush and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush pose in 2009.
PHOTO:
Gregory Rec/getty images/FILE
This is hardly the first time Iraq has emerged as a campaign issue.
The United States is fighting its third war in the country, if the current campaign against ISIS is included. Iraq was a key issue in presidential elections in 2004 and 2008.
It now looks certain that Obama will deposit the messy aftermath of the wars onto his successor, meaning they will return to the campaign trail in 2016.
