Newly minted Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush launched a forceful attack on the “Obama-Clinton-Kerry team” for abandoning key allies, including Israel, and weakening the military, and he promised to reverse course as president.
In his announcement from Miami, he said that President Obama, while entering office promising to restore foreign relationships that he charged had frayed under former President George W. Bush, has made things worse by appearing undependable.
“From the beginning, our president and his foreign policy team have been so eager to be the history makers that they have failed to be the peacemakers,” said Bush. “With their phone-it-in foreign policy, the Obama-Clinton-Kerry team is leaving a legacy of crises uncontained, violence unopposed, enemies unnamed, friends undefended and alliances unraveling,” he added.
Jeb Bush blamed Hillary Clinton and John Kerry for weakening American foreign policy.
In seeking to avoid conflict, Bush said that Obama, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her successor, John Kerry, have diminished the might of the U.S. military, which presidents have always counted on for backup in foreign policy challenges.
“This supposedly risk-averse administration is also running us straight in the direction of the greatest risk of all — military inferiority. It will go on automatically until a president steps in to rebuild our armed forces and take care of our troops and our veterans,” said Bush in speech excerpts provided to Secrets.
“They have my word – I will do it,” he promised.
I’m running for President of the United States. I will run with heart. I will run to win. http://t.co/Z3wh8ECPUl
— Jeb Bush (@JebBush) June 15, 2015
Bush also pledged to restore U.S. dependability, especially in the eyes of Israel, which has received more scolding by Obama than other presidents.
“We keep dependable friends in this world by being dependable ourselves,” said Bush, adding, “I will rebuild our vital friendships. That starts by standing with the brave, democratic State of Israel.”
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected].
