Jeb Bush maneuvers to pin Iraq War blame on Hillary Clinton — and keep his brother out of the picture

(Image credit: Kayana Szymczak/Getty Images)

published 11 August 2015

"Who can seriously argue that America and our friends are safer today than in 2009, when the president and Secretary Clinton — the storied 'team of rivals' — took office?" Jeb Bush plans to say later today during a speech at the Ronald Regan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California. His comments are aimed to strategically divorce his name from his brother's highly-criticized entry into the Iraq War — and from the failures of the Obama Administration during the clean-up.

Excerpts of the speech, which were released Monday night by Bush's campaign and reported by Politico, put an intense focus on Clinton's role in particular. "ISIS grew while the United States disengaged from the Middle East and ignored the threat," Bush will accuse. "And where was Secretary of State Clinton in all of this?"

Notably, Bush will also charge his brother, former President George W. Bush, of being "unwise" when entering the Iraq War, but the 2016 candidate will try to shift the blame to his primary Democratic rival. “So eager to be the history-makers, they failed to be the peacemakers," he will say of Clinton and Obama. "It was a case of blind haste to get out, and to call the tragic consequences somebody else's problem. Rushing away from danger can be every bit as unwise as rushing into danger, and the costs have been grievous."