Jeb Bush officially joined the 2016 White House race Monday. He promises to be an outsider — “not just another member of the club.” Don’t dare call the third Bush coveting the presidency a blue-blood. He is not “among the pampered elites of Washington.”
His mission is to prevent 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue from being “passed on from one liberal to the next.”
And echoing his brother’s promise of a humble foreign policy, Jeb’s main attack on the Obama administration is that “they have failed to be the peacemakers.”
Jeb will correct that failure, he promises.
His first bold move as the new peacemaker?
I will rebuild our vital friendships. That starts by standing with the brave, democratic State of Israel.
So he’s going to promise loyalty (and more American dollars) to Israel? That’s really going out on a limb in Washington!
Aside from that little bit of “peacemaking,” his peace message seems otherwise a boot on the neck of the rest of the world.
On Cuba he will reverse Obama’s moves to normalize relations and will re-align the ship of state to that enormously successful 50 year embargo: “We need an American president to go to Havana in solidarity with a free Cuban people, and I am ready to be that president.”
Because apparently conflict-making is peacemaking on Planet Bush.
His recent European tour was filled with bellicose rhetoric aimed at that great satan, Russian President Vladimir Putin. As president, Jeb promises to overturn the Russian people’s vote for president. His game plan to overthrow Putin is to “isolate his corrupt leadership from his people.” The peace candidate wants military equipment and other assistance delivered to Ukraine immediately. And of course he wants more sanctions on Russia.
And because there is no peacemaking like war-making, candidate Bush promises to “rebuild our armed forces.” Bush will declare war on “military inferiority,” he promises. He was furious over “the swift, mindless drawdown of a military that was generations in the making.”
Meanwhile, back on planet earth:
Yes, that mindless drawdown.
If one found the foreign policy of George W. Bush successful, one will love the candidacy of his brother. And as if on cue, the former president emerged to let it be known that he would invade Iraq again were he still in the saddle. As al-Qaeda (and its demon offspring ISIS) continues to dominate in post-liberation Iraq and Syria, with the continued assistance of US allies Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Israel — and the US itself — George W. Bush continues to make his own reality. “I think history will show that al-Qaida in Iraq was defeated,” he told the Israel Hayom newspaper. Of course it was from his 2003 invasion that al-Qaeda in Iraq was created, but who would be so impolite to correct the historical record?
Jeb’s brother waxed nostalgic over the thousands of American lives wasted in his lies-based wars in Iraq and Afghanistan: “There is only one thing that I really miss about being president, and that’s being the commander-in-chief,” he said. I am sure that will make the families feel better.
In summary, Jeb Bush, the latest in the dynasty, has demonstrated a facility with mendacity that should guarantee him an honored and exalted position among those on Team “R”. Pro-war but preaching peace. Slavishly pro-Israel but without the vulgar, Huckabeean Old Testament slobber. A winsome eye fluttering toward the military-industrial complex without having to show too much leg. A renewed dedication to regime change in Cuba, but delivered with a Spanish accent. A disgusted flip-off of “bully” Vladimir Putin delivered with a promise to bully the Russian people into overthrowing their elected leaders.
Newspeak means changing language itself to serve the interests of the state, and Jeb Bush, should we continue on the same path, has positioned himself comfortably. Relax and loosen your mind. Jeb’s coming to town…
