Jeb Bush seems to have an Iraq problem. His older brother, George W. Bush, led the country into a war in Iraq under false pretenses. In the wake of this unlawful invasion, the Islamic State, better known as ISIS, was able to gain substantial power in the region. When Jeb decided to blame this on President Obama, a college student in Nevada decided to call him out on it.
JEB BUSH, “YOUR BROTHER CREATED ISIS”
It was at a town-hall-style meeting in Nevada that 19-year-old college student Ivy Ziedrich encountered former Florida governor and 2016 Republican hopeful Jeb Bush. The New York Times reports that Ivy
“had heard Mr. Bush argue, a few moments before, that America’s retreat from the Middle East under President Obama had contributed to the growing power of the Islamic State.”
Ziedrich didn’t take kindly to this assertion, and as other audience members waited to get Bush’s autograph, she spoke up and asked if he would take a question from a student. Once she had his attention, the following exchange took place (note: there’s some craziness before and after the video. Our apologies):
Ziedrich: “The threat of ISIS was created by the Iraqi Coalition Authority which ousted the entire government of Iraq. It was when 30,000 individuals who were part of the Iraqi military, they were forced out, they had no employment, they had no income. Yet they were left with access to all of the same arms and weapons. Your brother created ISIS.”
Bush: “Is that a question?”
Ziedrich: “You don’t need to be pedantic to me, sir.”
Bush: “Pedantic? Wow.”
Ziedrich: “You could just answer my question.”
Bush: “So what is the question?”
Ziedrich: “Why are you saying that ISIS was created by us not having a presence in the Middle East when it’s pointless wars where we send young American men to die for the idea of American exceptionalism? Why are you spouting nationalist rhetoric to get us involved in more wars?”
Bush: “We respectfully disagree. We have a disagreement. When we left Iraq, security had been arranged, Al Qaeda had been taken out. There was a fragile system that could have been brought up to eliminate the sectarian violence. And we had an agreement that the president could have signed that would have kept 10,000 troops, less than we have in Korea, could have created the stability that would have allowed for Iraq to progress. The result was the opposite occurred. Immediately, that void was filled. Look, you can rewrite history all you want. But the simple fact is that we are in a much more unstable place because American pulled back.”
After saying this, Jeb simply turned away from the student and ended the conversation. Funnily enough, though, Jeb’s big brother has already admitted that Iraq was a mistake. Maybe it was the fact that he stated he’d planned on invading Iraq a mere two months after 9/11… an event having nothing to do with the country.
Even with that being the case, Jeb has admitted that he would have made the same decision that his brother made given the intelligence that was released. What he fails to remind people of, though, is the fact that the Senate found that Big Brother W had used intelligence that he knew was false in order to justify the war.
So Jeb would have invaded Iraq if presented with the same intelligence that his brother knew was false? You’re right Jeb, no question about it. It’s the black guy’s fault. We should have seen that from the beginning.
