Former Florida governor Jeb Bush said Wednesday that he would not be overly cautious about deploying American troops overseas solely to avoid earning the label of having launched a “third Bush war.”
“I would have a duty to protect the United States, and there are circumstances where a Commander in Chief, a President of the United States, has to make tough decisions, and history is full of examples of that,” Bush, during an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, said when asked about his father and brother’s campaigns in Iraq. It was Hewitt, not Bush, who used the phrase “third Bush war.”
“I wouldn’t be conflicted by any legacy issues of my family. I actually am quite comfortable being George Bush’s son and George Bush’s brother,” Bush said. “I don’t think there’s anything that relates to what my dad did and my brother did that would compel me to think one way or the other”
Asked whether the looming fight between the Bush and Clinton clans sends the wrong message to the world about democracy, Bush said the coming campaign can’t be about dynasty.
“If the campaign’s about a dynasty, I’m not sure that that’s going to work,” he said. “If it’s about how you advance ideas that will help people rise up then it will be an inspiration for others, and that’s what we need to do.”
Photos: Meet America's Top 10 Political Families
The Bush family dynasty begins with Prescott S. Bush, who represented Connecticut in the Senate from 1952 to 1963. His son George H. W. Bush served as Vice President, Director of the CIA, and President from 1989 to 1993. His son George W. Bush was governor of Texas and, from 2001 to 2009, President of the United States. George W's brother Jeb served as governor of Florida and is thought to be a possible contender for the White House in 2016. Getty ImagesThen Vice President George H. W. Bush sits with his sons George W. and Jeb while vacationing in Kennebunkport, Maine, in August 1983. Cynthia Johnson—Getty ImagesJoseph P. Kennedy was a multi-millionaire, U.S. ambassador to Britain and the patriarch of a political dynasty that included his sons pictured above, Robert Kennedy (left), U.S. Attorney General, U.S. Senator and candidate for President assassinated while campaigning in 1968, and John F. Kennedy (right), President of the U.S. from 1961 until he was assassinated in office in 1963.Rolls Press/Popperfoto/Getty ImagesPictured here on Easter Sunday 1963: John F. and Jacqueline Kennedy with their two children, John Jr. (left), who would become a publisher and die in a plane crash in 1999, and Caroline (right), an attorney, writer, and U.S. Ambassador to Japan. The Kennedy clan also includes Ted Kennedy, who served in the U.S. Senate until his death in 2009, Robert Kennedy Jr., a prominent environmental activist, Joseph P. Kennedy III, who was elected to Congress in 2012, and many other prominent Americans.MPI/Getty ImagesThe Clintons started their political dynasty in Arkansas in 1976, when Bill was elected Attorney General. He went on to win the governors seat and, in 1992, the Presidency. After leaving the White House, Hillary served as a Senator from New York and Secretary of State. She's widely expected to make her own White House bid in 2016. Brooks Kraft—CorbisBorn in 1980, Bill and Hillary's daughter Chelsea is married to investment banker Marc Mezvinsky, the son of two former members of Congress. On September 27, 2014, they added another member to the Clinton dynasty: their daughter, Charlotte Clinton MezvinskyFilmMagic/Getty ImagesAs a libertarian-minded Republican in congress for decades, Rep. Ron Paul (right) became the defacto leader of the libertarian movement in the U.S. His son Rand Paul (left) is now trying to take on that mantle as a Senator from Kentucky and likely presidential hopeful. Ed Reinke—APU.S. Sen. Rand Paul talks to his father Rep. Ron Paul during a news conference June 22, 2011 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Alex Wong—Getty ImagesDick Cheney (right) has served as a congressman, White House aide, Secretary of Defense and unusually powerful Vice President, but he's not the only political force in the family. His daughter Liz Cheney (left) is a conservative commentator and activist who ran unsuccessfully for Senate in 2014. AP (2)Cheney's daughters Liz (left) and Mary (right), pictured here at home in Wyoming in 1978, had a highly public row later in life, when Mary, who is gay, called out Liz for refusing to support same-sex marriage.David Hume Kennerly—Getty ImagesBoth George Romney and his son Mitt rose to national political prominence but neither held the top job. The elder Romney, who served as Governor of Michigan, ran unsuccessfully for the GOP nomination in 1968. Mitt Romney served as Governor of Massachusetts and secured the Republican presidential nomination in 2012. He was defeated in the general election. Getty Images; CorbisGeorge Romney announced his intention to run for governor of Michigan, with his son Mitt and his wife Lenore by his side, on February 10, 1962. RDA/Getty ImagesDescended from Mormon pioneers, the Udall family have held high political positions from states across the American West. To cite one of many examples, Stewart Udall served as Secretary of the Department of Interior under President Lyndon Johnson. Today, his son Tom Udall (right) represents New Mexico in the U.S. Senate, and his nephew Mark Udall (left) represents Colorado in the same body.CQ-Roll Call/Getty Images (2)The large Udall clan also includes local officials, congressmen and state legislators. APThe Taft family includes prominent Americans extending back to the colonial era. William Howard Taft (left) was President from 1909 to 1913 and later appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. His son Robert A. Taft (right) wielded extraordinary power and influence as a member of the U.S. Senate, where he served until his death in 1953. Getty Images (2)Theodore Roosevelt first become president after the assassination of President McKinley in 1901 and served until 1909. Franklin Roosevelt was a great admirer of his fifth cousin Theodore, and became President himself, serving from 1933 to 1945, the longest consecutive administration in America’s history. Getty Images (2)America’s original political dynasty, the Adams family had a hand in some of the most consequential events in the country’s history. John Adams was a member of the Continental Congress, a signatory to the Declaration of Independence, and served as America’s first President from 1797 to 1801. John Quincy Adams became the first son of a President to become President, serving from 1825 to 1829. National Archives/Getty Images (2)
Bush criticized President Barack Obama for “disengaging” from the Middle East and for pulling U.S. troops out of Iraq after Obama failed to secure a so-called status of forces agreement with the Iraqi government.
“Had we kept the 10,000 troop commitment that was there for the President to negotiate and to agree with, we probably wouldn’t have ISIS right now,” Bush said, referring to the militant group Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria.
Bush, who has sought counsel from a broad array of foreign policy thinkers, including many of those involved in his brother and father’s Administrations, told Hewitt he had not fully studied up on the issue of the nation’s nuclear arsenal. The U.S. fleet of Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines are due to be retired at the end of the next decade and their replacements are still on the drawing board. “To be honest, I can’t give you an informed answer to that,” Bush conceded. “But the fact that we’re not planning here over the long haul about the role of the U.S. Navy and the military in our national defense is troubling.”
Asked whether he would be willing to debate potential rival Senator Marco Rubio in Spanish, Bush said he’d jump at the chance. “I love being with my friend Marco,” Bush said of his fellow Floridian. “I don’t know whether I could keep up to him with his perfect Spanish but my close-enough Spanish, I think we would have a fun time doing that.”
Bush said that should he formally declare his candidacy, he would be sure to carry his message into Spanish-speaking communities, criticizing Mitt Romney’s delay in doing so during the 2012 campaign.
