The 2016 presidential candidate said that we should not block Syrian refugees from entering the country, despite grave security concerns over the screening process-a process that the Federal Bureau of Investigation said makes it virtually impossible for them to clear every Syrian refugee of terrorist ties coming into the United States. Bush also calls for increasing production of next-generation stealth bombers.
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“The scope… should be in line with what our military generals, not politicians, recommend will be necessary”, he said in his speech, delivered at the Citadel military college in SC. “Terrorists have declared war on the Western world. Their aim is our total destruction”, he said. “We can’t withdraw from this threat, or negotiate with it”. Mr. Bush would replace their defense cuts with increased spending and substitute force reductions with an expansion of the Army by 40,000 soldiers and the Marine Corps by 4,000 Marines.
The former Florida governor has tried for several months to blame ISIS’ rise on the current administration, namely President Obama’s decision to draw down troops from Iraq in a way Bush believes created a vacuum that terrorists have filled.
Bush warned against mission creep, and promised the assembled cadets, who clapped often during his speech, that “our objectives must be well defined, so that one deployment doesn’t lead to endless others – or leave the job undone”.
Due to the last venture in Iraq, that may be more hard for a few to stomach than others.
The Republican candidate acknowledged that the national security fight “always involves risk”, but cautioned that “sometimes very bad things happen when America steps away from hard challenges”. The ad includes Medal of Honor recipients describing why they are backing Bush for president. “We are choosing the leader of the free world”, he will say, according to excerpts released early on Wednesday. “And if these attacks remind us of anything, it is that we are living in serious times that require serious leadership”, he said. Rather, he intends for the U.S.to defeat ISIS by leading a “global coalition” made up of allies from North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and the Middle East. Unlike his brother with Iraq, Bush does not seem to be under the illusion that a ground invasion will yield a quick fix: “Let there be no doubt, this will not be easy”.
“I think it’s important for the next president, whoever he or she may be, to learn from the lessons of the past and use those lessons to focus on the future”, Bush told an audience of more than 300 at Coastal Carolina University in Conway Tuesday. He could have said that he was aware of the old strategy, but that America also has an obligation to engage in the war of ideas too within Islam.
The former Florida governor proposed a complete reversal of the national security and foreign policies of Mr. Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, the front-runner and heavy favorite to win the Democratic presidential nomination. “I don’t think at this stage we should be pausing until we get the facts.’ — That’s not exactly saying no”. In the Middle East, he would deploy Special Forces to fight along side Iraqi security forces and Kurdish fighters, while also implementing a no-fly zone in Syria.
Shortly after launching his campaign in February, Bush unveiled a team of foreign policy advisers, a who’s who of past GOP administrations led by his father and brother. At the barbecue joint, the younger Bush recalled the war as “one of the most effective victories, where we had a strategy, we act(ed) on a strategy, we won and we left”.
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“Absent such details, I may like the willingness to do more, but the words don’t yet convince me that he has studied the problem well or outlined a truly promising path forward”, O’Hanlon said.
