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Jeb had his big "foreign policy" speech the other day. LINK to YouTube. Aside from mixing up Iran and Iraq and having no policy on ISIS except to do what President Obama is doing only - you know - Florida style, his speech was pretty boring and meandering.
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But then in the Q&A he got to his big brother's war. This is what he said...
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BUSH: Let’s go to Iraq. There were mistakes made in Iraq, for sure. Using the intelligence capability that everybody embraced about weapons of mass destruction was not – turns out not to be accurate. Not creating an environment of security after the successful taking out of Hussein was a mistake, because Iraqis wanted security most – more than anything else. But my brother’s administration, through the surge, which was one of the most heroic acts of courage, politically, that any president’s done, because there was no support for it. It was hugely successful and it created a stability that, when the new president came in, he could have built on to create a fragile but more stable situation that would not have allowed for the void to be filled. The void has been filled because we created the void.
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Let's unpack those nuggets, shall we...
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There were mistakes made in Iraq, for sure. .. Mistakes. A War that was un-necessary, based on lies and cost $1Trillion dollars (that is $1,000,000,000,000.00) - Mistakes! 200,000 Iraqis dead because of this. Mistakes - sure. What is a big mistake to him.?
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Using the intelligence capability that everybody embraced about weapons of mass destruction was not – turns out not to be accurate. .."everybody embraced"? Well, not the actual weapons inspectors we forced in. Turns out they were right. Not the people that voted against the war ("cough" Barack Obama "cough"). Not the the British intelligence. Not the CIA intelligence teams on the ground. So not really "everybody".
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Not creating an environment of security after the successful taking out of Hussein was a mistake, because Iraqis wanted security most – more than anything else. .."an environment of security" wow, that sounds fluffy. An environment of security - like we gave out lumpy pillows. Actually, we released the entire security apparatus and governing structure onto the street with no government in place. We created spheres of influence pitting the various factions against each other (which leads directly to ISIS). I am sure the dead people in Erbil will appreciate that we now admit we didn't create "an environment of security".
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But my brother’s administration, through the surge, which was one of the most heroic acts of courage, politically, that any president’s done, because there was no support for it...Courage...
It was hugely successful and it created a stability that, when the new president came in, he could have built on to create a fragile but more stable situation that would not have allowed for the void to be filled. The void has been filled because we created the void... Could Obama really have filled the void? How, by some magical spirit? The surge left militias roaming the country keeping peace at any price. The "surge" left a government allied to Iran in place with no representation from the non-ruling groups. The "surge" left a government that did not sign an extension of forces contract with Bush or Obama - despite a push from both of them to implement it. I get it, blaming Obama is easy, simple minded and plays to the base well.
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Look, I think Obama is a lousy President. I don't know why; he is moral, smart and strives to be the leader of all of us. But he's a dud. However I am happier with this dud than the bomb-happy deficit building numskull before him.
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Elect Jeb - 8 more years of W's policies. We have almost fixed the country, time to go back into endless war and not pay for it. Bush in 2016!