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Jeb Bush says he misinterpreted question on invading Iraq in 2003

 
Jeb Bush now says that he doesn’t know whether he would have approved invading Iraq in 2003.
Jeb Bush now says that he doesn’t know whether he would have approved invading Iraq in 2003.
Published May 13, 2015

WASHINGTON — Jeb Bush on Tuesday said he misinterpreted a question from a Fox News host that led him to say he would have still authorized an invasion of Iraq despite bad intelligence, a response that a well-known conservative columnist deemed "disastrous."

Bush said on Sean Hannity's radio show that he did not understand the question from Fox's Megyn Kelly, who asked if he would have gone to war knowing what is now known about the discredited intelligence.

Bush appeared to some observers to be answering whether he would have invaded at the time, without the benefit of hindsight.

But the former Florida governor, who is poised to soon enter the race for president, dodged when Hannity asked the question as Kelly intended.

"Yeah, I don't know what that decision would have been — that's a hypothetical — but the simple fact is, mistakes were made," Bush said. "We need to learn from the past and make sure that we're strong and secure going forward."

The original television interview aired Monday night on Fox and in it, Bush noted that Hillary Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic nomination for president, voted for the war.

But the view of the war has changed dramatically since 2003.

"If Jeb Bush sticks to his position — that he would still authorize war knowing what we know today — it will represent a step backward for the Republican Party," conservative columnist Byron York wrote in the Washington Examiner. "Other candidates before Jeb have grappled with the issue and changed their position. Look at the evolution of the 2012 GOP presidential nominee, Mitt Romney.

So Bush walked back his statement on Tuesday but not completely. He tried to emphasize the positive.

"The simple fact is that in the last few years of my brother's presidency, the (troop) surge was quite effective to bring stability and security to Iraq, which was missing during the early days of the United States' engagement there," he said, blaming President Barack Obama for withdrawing troops too early.

That Bush sought to clarify his remarks shows how sensitive the war remains.

Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, a Republican who is preparing to enter the presidential contest, was asked Tuesday on CNN if it was the right decision to go to war.

"No," he flatly replied, "it wasn't."

Another Bush rival, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, told The Hill newspaper in Washington, "Knowing what we know now, of course we wouldn't go into Iraq."

More hawkish members of the GOP hold the view that the war was justified, even if the intelligence was off. Sen Marco Rubio of Florida, who began his presidential campaign last month, recently said on Fox News that it was the right call.

"The world is a better place because Saddam Hussein doesn't run Iraq," Rubio said in late March, adding the country was in violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions. "Hindsight is always 20/20. We don't know what the world would look like if Saddam Hussein were still there. But I doubt it would look better."

Rubio is to deliver his first foreign policy speech as a candidate Wednesday before the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

In other Bush news, his campaign confirmed Tuesday he will skip the Iowa straw poll this summer, taking a pass on a ritual that has been criticized as circus that does a poor job picking nominees. In 2011, then U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., won the contest, but she soon fizzled out.

Instead Bush, who has struggled in early polls in Iowa, will participate in an event in Atlanta on Aug. 8.

"We hope Governor Bush rethinks his decision and realizes that grass roots will only grow in Iowa if he waters them," Iowa GOP Chairman Jeff Kaufmann wrote on Twitter. "The RedState Gathering is a four-day event, and other candidates have already indicated that they will be attending both. We don't buy this excuse and neither will Iowans."

Contact Alex Leary at aleary@tampabay.com. Follow @learyreports.