Posted on 05/27/2015 7:09:32 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The foreign policy position of several Republican candidates took a dramatic turn after Jeb Bush, by common perception, bungled a question on the Iraq War. Knowing what he knows now (i.e., that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq) would Governor Bush have launched an invasion in 2003? Bush answered in the affirmative, thereafter discovering that he had misunderstood the question and needed to amend his response. Immediately after, such other candidates as Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz deemed it prudent to say no – knowing what they also know now, they would not have attacked Iraq and deposed Saddam Hussein.
Is it really wise to concede effectively that the Democrats have been right since they switched from supporting the 2002 Use of Military Force Authorization to “Bush lied, kids died”? Do Republican candidates not thereby set up Hillary Clinton’s foreign policy argument? The Republicans now admit that they led us into an awful blunder, the full consequences of which we are only just seeing, and yet they want another chance to conduct the nation’s foreign policy! Are you, the American people, going to give it to them?
Before saying exactly what the Democrats want to hear, Republicans might consider whether the decision itself to make war was the actual blunder.
The Republican confession of error in invading Iraq is predicated upon the unraveling of the justification for war most emphasized in 2002-2003: the alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) by Saddam Hussein and his active programs to develop them. But was the blunder not to rely upon such a supposed factual assertion, which could be verified empirically only after the invasion occurred? What about the following justification for the invasion?
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
While foreign policy may seem like a winning topic for the politicians it is well to remember that in the final analysis it is always...always...always the economy!
IMO, a critical error was the abrupt recall of LTG Jay Garner, shortly after he was appointed #2 (to Paul Bremer). He wasn’t into nation building, so he had to go.
“Knowing that a President who doesn’t believe in American exceptionalism was going to turn the territory over to ISIS, no.”
How about defending our involvement?
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