Jeb Bush doesn’t want to talk about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan started by his brother, former President George W. Bush.
Asked at an event Friday about a foreign policy speech he’s planning to give next week, the former Florida governor replied, according to Bloomberg News: “I won’t talk about the past.”
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He added: “I’ll talk about the future. If I’m in the process of considering the possibility of running, it’s not about re-litigating anything in the past. It’s about trying to create a set of ideas and principles that will help us move forward.”
Bush, the bookies’ favorite for the Republican 2016 presidential nomination, is scheduled to give an address on foreign policy Wednesday at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. It’s not hard to understand why Bush might not want to discuss Iraq. One key challenge for Bush’s expected presidential bid will be separating himself from his brother, whose presidency is widely viewed as a failure, including by many conservatives. And the invasion of Iraq is seen by many as perhaps President Bush’s biggest errors. Jeb Bush has not been outspoken on foreign policy issues. But according to a recent report, he’s considering naming Meghan O’Sullivan as his top foreign policy aide. O’Sullivan served in the George W. Bush administration, but she’s associated with the realist wing of the GOP, rather than the neo-conservative one.
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