Jeb is not “the Bushes.” He’s a weasel who will say anything to get elected. Same MO as Obama.
I’ve heard of straw men but never a straw scenario, and you’ve invented two of them. We never went to war because Sadam would bomb the U.S. if we didn’t. That’s the most absurd thing I’ve ever heard on this subject. And Bush wasn’t responsible for our leaving—Obama was, so anything that happened after we left was his doing, in spite of much advice to the contrary from people who knew the Middle East.
Everyone saw it at the time as another ploy in his political campaign for 2012. He listened to his base, who are the purest pacifists in the world when it isn’t a Dem war.
Everyone knows all of this. How come you don’t?
Bush Sr. didn't push for regime change when he was in office, and George W. seems pretty conflicted about what he should have done (knowing what we know now).
We never went to war because Sadam would bomb the U.S. if we didn’t. That’s the most absurd thing I’ve ever heard on this subject.
Like it or not, a lot of people were saying something very similar at the time. But my point was, terrorist or jihadist activity was likely to rise, not fall if we invaded. It was more likely that something like ISIS would arise if we took Saddam Hussein out than if we didn't.
And Bush wasn’t responsible for our leaving—Obama was, so anything that happened after we left was his doing, in spite of much advice to the contrary from people who knew the Middle East.
You go to war with the country that you have. The US wasn't prepared to stay in in Iraq for a generation (though we'll probably have to now). Sooner or later we would have left, and afterwards civil war and the rise of new threats could have been forseen, if we hadn't been so naive and overconfident in 2003.