Jeb Bush, son and brother of US presidents, is his ‘own man’
WASHINGTON: Republican Jeb Bush yesterday sought to lay to rest any concerns that his foreign policy views might be influenced by the presidential legacies of his father and brother, saying, “I am my own man”.
Bush, son of former president George HW Bush and brother of former president George W Bush, addressed the matter head-on in a speech at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. He stressed the changed global circumstances that awaited the next president.
It was his first major foray into foreign policy since the former Florida governor announced in December that he is considering a run for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination.
Bush, according to speech excerpts released by his political organisation, said he had been lucky to have a father and a brother who had shaped US foreign policy and that he recognised “my views will often be held up in comparison to theirs – sometimes in contrast to theirs”.
“I love my father and my brother. I admire their service to the nation and the difficult decisions they had to make. But I am my own man, and my views are shaped by my own thinking and own experiences,” he said.
Bush is casting a wide net for advice on national security. An aide provided Reuters with a diverse list of 20 diplomatic and national security veterans who would be providing informal advice to Bush in the coming months.
Many of them are from past Republican administrations, including those of his father and brother as well as that of Ronald Reagan.
The list includes people representing a wide spectrum of ideological views in the Republican Party, from the pragmatic to the hawkish. It includes James Baker, known for his pragmatism in key roles during the Reagan and George HW Bush presidencies, and former World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz, a hawk as deputy defence secretary who was an architect of George W Bush’s Iraq policy.
Among others are two former secretaries of Homeland Security, Tom Ridge and Michael Chertoff, former national security adviser Stephen Hadley and a deputy national security adviser, Meghan O’Sullivan, as well as two former CIA directors, Porter Goss and Michael Hayden.
With polls showing Bush a frontrunner among Republican candidates jockeying for the 2016 nomination, his aim is to set his own course on US foreign policy without getting entangled in a debate about the legacy of his father and older brother.
Bush has said that he supports his brother’s decision to go to war in Iraq in 2003, which could leave him open to attack from Democrats should he win the nomination. His complaint about the recent past in Iraq is that President Barack Obama has let American influence wane in the region.
“Each president learns from those who came before, their principles, their adjustments,” Bush said. “One thing we know is this: every president inherits a changing world, and changing circumstances.”
Bush’s Chicago speech was the second in a series of appearances designed to outline the foundation for what is likely to be a presidential campaign. Two weeks ago in Detroit he discussed his views on reducing income inequality and bolstering the US economy.
His Chicago speech comes as the US grapples with the threats posed by Islamic State (IS) militants and Russia’s aggression in eastern Ukraine.
Obama has relied heavily on air strikes against IS targets in Syria and Iraq, but the militants retain large swathes of territory in both countries.
The US has joined with European allies to impose sanctions on Russia that have had an impact but have yet to force Moscow to pull back.
Bush criticised Obama’s handling of foreign policy and said that American leadership must be projected consistently.
“Under this administration, we are inconsistent and indecisive,” he said. “We have lost the trust and the confidence of our friends. We definitely no longer inspire fear in our enemies.”
His list of advisers suggests a willingness to listen to a variety of views from people with long experience, including former World Bank president Robert Zoellick. – Reuters