Jeb Bush: U.S. must ‘tighten the noose’ in fight against IS

CHICAGO – Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said Wednesday there can be no diplomacy with Islamic State militants, but only a U.S.-led coalition of Middle Eastern countries committed to “tightening the noose and taking them out.”

In a wide-ranging speech outlining his vision of America’s place in the world, part of the Republican’s run-up toward a likely campaign for president in 2016, Bush laid the rise of the Islamic State group at the feet of President Barack Obama. He also made his most overt criticisms to date of his brother’s administration, telling the audience of several hundred people, “I am my own man.”

“My views are shaped by my own thinking and own experiences,” Bush said at an event hosted by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. “Each president learns from those who came before – their principles, their adjustments.”

“There were mistakes made in Iraq, for sure,” during President George W. Bush’s administration, Bush said during a question-and-answer session that followed his 20-minute speech. He said intelligence about Saddam Hussein’s possession of weapons of mass destruction was not accurate and the U.S. initially failed to create an environment of security in the country after removing the Iraqi leader from power.

But Bush praised his older brother’s decision to “surge” troops into Iraq in 2007, which added roughly 20,000 troops to the American forces in the country in an effort to improve security. He called it “one of the most heroic acts of courage politically” of any president, given the weak support for that strategy in Congress.

Bush raised the criticisms of his brother without prompting, and used them as a way to critique Obama’s handling of the Middle East. He said Obama failed to maintain what he called a fragile but stable security situation that his brother left behind in Iraq upon leaving office in 2009.

Had he done so, Obama “would not have allowed the void to be filled” by Islamic State militants who now control large parts of Iraq and Syria. He said there can be no discussions with the group, which has drawn condemnation across the region and the world for carrying out regular acts of violence, often on video, that include beheadings.

“We have to develop a strategy that’s local, that takes them out,” Bush said. “There’s no talking about this. That’s just not going to work for terrorism.”