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 Bush is to deliver a 9 p.m. EDT foreign policy speech at the
Ronald Reagan presidential library in Simi Valley, Calif., where the
next debate will take place on Sept. 16 among candidates for the
2016 Republican presidential nomination.
Excerpts of the speech released by his campaign show that Bush will
call Islamic State "the focus of evil in the world today" and say
that, if elected in November 2016, he would embark on an
"unyielding" effort to overcome the threat.
"We should pursue the clear and unequivocal objective of throwing
back the barbarians of ISIS, and helping the millions in the region
who want to live in peace," Bush will say. ISIS is another name for
the Islamic State group.
He will argue that President Barack Obama's policy, which relies
heavily on air strikes against Islamic State targets in Syria and
Iraq, is failing to turn the tide.
"Instead of simply reacting to each new move the terrorists choose
to make, we will use every advantage we have, to take the offensive,
to keep it, and to prevail," Bush will say. "In all of this, the
United States must engage with friends and allies, and lead again in
that vital region."
It is a delicate subject for Bush since his brother, former
President George W. Bush, started a war in Iraq in 2003 based on
allegations that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of
mass destruction that were never found.
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Jeb Bush will say Obama's insistence on not leaving a U.S.
contingency force behind in Iraq, after the success of the Bush-led
troop surge late in his presidency, created a security vacuum that
left the region open to the growth of Islamic State.
He will say Clinton, who was Obama's first-term secretary of state,
deserves some of the blame. Clinton's foreign policy experience is a
major selling point for her candidacy.
"Where was Secretary of State Clinton in all of this? Like the
president himself, she had opposed the surge, then joined in
claiming credit for its success, then stood by as that hard-won
victory by American and allied forces was thrown away," Bush will
say.
"In all her record-setting travels, she stopped by Iraq exactly
once," he will say.
(Editing by Paul Tait)
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