Sinking in the polls after the first GOP debate in Cleveland, Ohio Aug. 6, 62-year-old Jeb Bush came out swinging, blaming former Secretary and presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton for causing the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. Bush mentions nothing about his brother, former Presdient George W. Bush, whose Iraq War opened up the floodgates of terrorism and destabilized the Middle East. Jeb knows he can no more blame Hillary for what the U.S. did or didn’t do in Iraq or Syria, than he could blame “W’s Secretary of State Colin L. Powell for the policy of invading and toppling Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein Instead of going after President Barack Obama for pulling the plug prematurely in Iraq Dec. 15, 20111, leading to the rise of ISIS, Jeb blames Hillary. Coming off an abysmal performance in the debate, Jeb wants to grab some headlines.
Only recently has anyone admitted, like the Washington Post April 4, that Saddam’s former generals, led by Saddam’s right hand man, red-haired Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, are running ISIS’s military operations. Speaking in Simi Valley, Calif., tonight at 9 pm EST, at the Reagan Library, Jeb hopes to regain traction lost in the Aug. 6 debate. His responses were so contrived, so scripted, so memorized, that he showed GOP voters why he’s not ready for Prime Time. “The focus of evil in the world today,” Bush called ISIS, harking back to his brother’s Jan. 29, 2002 State of the Union Speech, calling Iraq, Iran and North Korean the “Axis of Evil.” Going after Hillary, Jeb hopes to put air back into his campaign’s sails, left drifting after a lackluster performance in the first debate. Jeb showed how over-preparation, memorizing talking points, can make a candidate look stilted and robotic.
Blaming Hillary for the rise of ISIS shows that when Jeb reluctantly admits that he’d do things differently in Iraq than his brother, he’s insincere. Blaming Hillary for the rise of ISIS makes about as much sense as blaming her for the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, where Amb. Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed. Bush calls for an “unyielding” effort to deal with ISIS, except he hasn’t called, like fellow GOP candidate Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), to put 20,000 U.S. ground troops in Iraq and Syria. Without toppling Saddam Hussein April 10, 2003, there would be no need for Saddam’s former Baathist generals to try, through ISIS, to reclaim Iraq. Jeb blames his brother’s mistakes on “faulty” intel but the record shows the Bush White House manufactured the intel through the cherry-picked Pentagon Office of Special Plans.
Jeb’s brother sent his Secretary of State Colin L. Powell to the U.N. Security Council Feb. 5, 2003 to make the White House case for war. Powell methodically documented all of Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction based on White House-manufactured intel, only to find out after the invasion no WMD existed. Jeb refused to come clean about what really happened in Iraq, often excusing his brother’s actions based on “faulty” intel. “We should pursue the clear and unequivocal objective of throwing back the barbarians of ISIS, and helping the millions in the region who want to live in peace,” Jeb plans to say tonight at the Reagan Library. Unlike Graham, or for that matter Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz), who wants to put U.S. ground forces back in Iraq and Syria, Jeb is ambiguous how he intends to deal and defeat ISIS.
After his disappointing debate performance, Jeb can’t decide what to do to salvage his flagging campaign. Going after Hillary presents himself as a tough rooster but he knows she had little to do with U.S. foreign policy, anymore than Powell called the shots in his brother’s White House. Obama promised to end the Iraq and Afghan Wars, and only reluctantly pulled the plug Dec. 15, 2011 when former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Malki refused to give the Pentagon an immunity agreement for continued military presence. Walking a razor’s edge between the Taliban and U.S. military, al-Malki essentially kicked the U.S. out of Iraq. Whatever happened with the rise of ISIS had nothing to do with Hillary and little to do with Obama. Jeb hasn’t come to grips with how his brother’s shortsighted decision to topple Saddam Hussein flooded Iraq with terrorists giving rise to ISIS.
Jeb’s problem in the first GOP debate stemmed not only from his robotic performance but also his lack of familiarity with specifics of domestic and foreign policy. “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,” Bush plans to say tonight. When Jeb says he wants the U.S. “to take the offensive,” he’s talking, like Graham and McCain, of putting boots-on-the-ground back in Iraq. Jeb knows that ISIS wouldn’t exist were it not for his brother toppling Saddam. Putting the onus on Hillary shows he’s still making excuses for his brother’s mistakes. At least Graham and McCain say clearly they’d put at least 20,000 grounds troops back in Iraq. Speaking only in generalities, Jeb hopes to blame Hillary or Obama, talk tough but avoid voter backlash by committing U.S. ground troops.
