Republican presidential candidate former Florida Governor Jeb Bush criticized the Clinton administration’s approach to Osama bin Laden, and Republican fellow candidate Donald Trump’s foreign policy while also declaring, “We can’t take 250,000 refugees” on Monday’s “Hannity” on the Fox News Channel.
Jeb said, “I think there’s two ways to look at Islamic terrorism. One is a threat that has to be taken out, as it relates to creating a strategy ,that calls it a war, or we view it as a law enforcement operation where people have rights. I think the Clinton administration made a mistake of thinking bin Laden had to be viewed from a law enforcement perspective. Similarly, the — President Obama’s policy seemed to be focused on that as well. This is a war against Western Civilization, and without the United States’ leadership, this will be a problem for generations to come. And i think we need to be much more forceful, both here to protect the homeland, as well as overseas to create a strategy to unite the world against this great threat. And I don’t believe Donald Trump has the capability of doing that.”
Earlier, Jeb stated, “we need a steady hand. We need someone that understands the grave threats and America’s leadership in the world, and his [Trump’s] view of history is just wrong. The simple fact is that when we were attacked, my brother created an environment where, for 2,600 days, we were safe. No one attacked us again, and he changed the laws. He did everything necessary, united the country, and he kept us safe, and just a tip of the hat to that, and moving on to what the threats are today is what we ought to be focused on. Donald Trump is not a serious candidate as it relates to foreign policy.”
Jeb added that he would support if he was the nominee, but he has to “show that he’s capable” to voters. He continued, “In the last month, Donald Trump has said let ISIS take out Assad, and then he says let Russia take out ISIS. He was happy that Russia is in Syria. That is not in our strategic interests to allow Russia to gain influence. They’re barrel bombing the innocents in Syria. This problem is cascading out throughout the region. There are millions of refugees heading towards Europe. You can’t expect the Soviet Union, whose only objective is to prop up its client state, Assad, to take out ISIS. They’re not — that’s not their intention, and this lack of understanding of how the world works is what the problem is.”
When asked whether he would accept refugees from Syria and Iraq, Jeb responded, “The principal thing we should focus on is a strategy to take out Assad and to take out ISIS, and i laid out that strategy two months ago, where we create a no-fly zone and a safe haven for a force where both Europe and the Arab world would unite behind a force that was well-trained, where our air support could make a difference. That’s the way to restrict the number of refugees leaving. We can’t take 250,000 refugees. I’ve never heard that, and that would be impossible to imagine logistically for us to screen. And it’s going to be a huge problem from Europe as well. Russia has made this worse, and Donald Trump believes that Russia’s presence is a good thing in Syria. It just makes no sense at all. He’s running for president of the United States, he should be commander-in-chief — he’s running for commander-in-chief. He should have a policy that projects America’s leadership and presence in the world, not to applaud Putin for filling our void.”
Jeb concluded by criticizing the Iran nuclear deal, and stated that in the wake of the deal, “I don’t believe it’s necessarily a coincidence that the Palestinian Authority is inciting violence against innocent Israelis.” He continued, “we should be very clear that there is no moral equivalence, that inciting terror inside of Israel is not the equivalency of what Israel does in self-defense.”
Jeb further argued that the US should be “completely on their side on this,” and “make sure that we continue to support Israel, providing them with the most sophisticated equipment to create a deterrent effect.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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