Posted on 05/12/2015 2:55:38 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Ted Cruz is breaking from former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) about whether or not he would have ordered the U.S. military into its eight-year war in Iraq.
“Knowing what we know now, of course we wouldn’t go into Iraq,” the Texas Republican told The Hill on Tuesday.
“At the time, the intelligence reports indicated that Iraq was developing weapons of mass destruction that posed a significant national threat to this country. That’s the reason there was such widespread bipartisan support for going into Iraq,” he added. “We now know in hindsight, those intelligence reports were false.” “Without that predicate, it is difficult to imagine the decision would have been made to go into Iraq, and that predicate proved erroneous,” Cruz said.
The comments come after Bush landed in hot water for defending the 2003 invasion launched by his brother, George W. Bush.
In an interview on Fox News, Bush said he “would have” ordered troops into Iraq, “and so would have Hillary Clinton, just to remind everyone,” he said on Fox News.
The comments sparked a backlash on the right, with pundits such as Laura Ingraham and Byron York blasting the comments as misguided and a bad omen for his candidacy.
Bush — Cruz’s likely rival in the race for the Republican nomination for president — and his team have seemed to try to walk the comments back in the hours since the Fox News interview.
Cruz on Tuesday said he was satisfied with Bush’s response, and refrained from launching any criticism.
“My understanding is that his team today walked that back and said that Gov. Bush had misunderstood the question,” he said. “I certainly take him at his word.”
As we handled it, yes it was.
I do not think that it was a mistake at all.
I almost lost my son there during that invasion but I supported the mission as did he.
Respect for our vets and military but going into Iraq was a mistake— I felt that way at the time. Saddam was bad but was a natural enemy of Iran. ISIS would not be in Iraq if Saddam was still in power.
It had to be done — it should have done by Clinton but he is a spineless coward.
Obama made it a mistake.
Yeah, I don’t know if I agree with this tact. I do agree with the above comments that given how we handled it, it may not make sense, but the mission was right and just, and the result of removing a cancerous Hussein was a positive. Saddam was funding terror against the Israeilis and a constant thorn in our side. He refused to abide by the agreement he made after the gulf war.
It was correct to go after him and not let him thumb his nose at the US and UN. We were almost the only ones not to crumble is compliance with his refusal to comply.
The only question in my mind is whether it was worth the personal and financial toll to do it. Hard to say. You are one who can take a position on that, given your loved one in harms way.
At the very least, we ought to have known a democracy would not work in that culture (it isn’t another Germany, Japan, or Korea), and had different plans, if a sufficiently chastened Saddam would not be workable.
I just love that he uses the word “predicate” correctly. Anything that even sounds like it’s having to do with mathematical or logical proofs intimidates the hell out of journalism majors.
It’s like watching a master play chess with an opponent that showed up with nothing but checkers.
~~Cruz, OR LOSE~~ Ted Cruz is the only true Conservative in this race.
To do it right you would have had to dump them all into a ditch.
Bingo.
15 of the 19 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia..... So we attack Iraq.
It would be like attacking China after PerlmHarbor attack in 1941.
Then we wonder why Terrorist groups keep popping up?
I agree completely with you. And as I said on a thread yesterday, I am sick and tired of people blaming Bush for what Obama did. I think there is a clear separation between their actions. I am no fan of W, but you can’t blame him for Obama’s throwing away everything W accomplished.
I am a Cruz supporter but I am very disappointed that Cruz took the politically expedient approach on this issue.
I would like for someone to ask these candidates if they considereded it an act of war when Saddam Hussein was routinely firing missiles at our pilots who were flying in the no-fly zone. And if firing missiles at our pilots was a continuing act of war what should have been done about it? And if firing missiles at our pilots was not an act of war, what would they consider an act of war to be?
And finally, after 9/11, the lesson everyone took away from that was then you are attacked, no matter how small the attack, you have to respond because next time the attacker will get bolder. The candidates, including Cruz, should be asked how this principle should have been applied to Hussein firing missiles at our pilots.
Obama and the democrats have endangered the entire world by initiating the dual evacuations by our Forces of both relatively ‘settled’’ hotspots.
How can people not perceive this?
Bush and Rove wimped out. Should have taken out Assad and put in pro western regimes by force of arms. Instead left it to Obama and now total chaos throughout the region.
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