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
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."
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.
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A new Bush tries to escape his brother's Iraq legacy