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Jeb Bush on Foreign Policy
Republican FL Governor; V.P. prospect
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Nourish our existing alliances: that means NATO & Israel
Bush outlined a series of principles as necessary for an effective U.S. foreign policy: "The appropriate traditional foreign policy," Bush said, "requires you to nourish the alliances that exist in the world and have kept us safe. That means NATO.
That means our relationship with Israel. These alliances have been built by American leadership and we need to nourish them so that they're real rather than just paper tigers."
Bush also blamed Obama for "gutting the military and our intelligence capabilities in a world where these asymmetric threats are real." Bush concluded that "in every one of those four or
five principles of foreign policy I would say that the president's let us down." In explaining Obama's failures, Bush noted, "you need to lead, and reacting is not leadership."
Source: Theodore Kettle on Newsmax.com, "Rise of ISIS"
, Oct 31, 2014
Passivity hasn't worked on Russia and Ukraine
Bush has joined Chris Christie and other center-right Republicans in criticizing President Obama for alleged "passivity." In a private speech in March to Sheldon Adelson and the Republican Jewish Coalition,
Bush slammed Obama on Russia and Ukraine: "He was very rough on the president in terms of his handling of foreign policy, referring to the dangers of 'American passivity.'" said [one attendee].
Back in 2012, [one pundit wrote in] Foreign Policy: "The next Republican nominee will need distance both from George W. Bush's foreign policy and from Mitt Romney's campaign.
Even Jeb Bush--particularly Jeb Bush--would have to look like he was taking a very different approach to foreign policy than his brother."
Source: Bob and Barbara Dreyfuss in The Nation magazine
, May 30, 2014
Leading from behind is so odd to me
[At the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum], Jeb Bush signaled the kind of campaign he would mount if he runs for president, one arguing against ideological purity tests while challenging party orthodoxy on issues like immigration and education.
Even as he sharply criticized President Obama for his handling of foreign affairs and health care, Bush made clear that he would run against the style of politics that has characterized recent Republican nominating contests.
He was more willing to criticize Obama, naturally. "Leading from behind is so odd to me," he said of the president's foreign policy. And he said it was absurd for
Obama to be "doing a victory dance" over the enrollment of seven million people in his new health care program given what Bush considers its deep structural flaws.
Source: Peter Baker in N.Y. Times, "Jeb Talks Approach"
, Apr 7, 2014
2010: Ineptitude will bring down Chavez regime in Venezuela
Although he rarely comments on foreign policy, Bush has appeared particularly unwilling to push back against the neoconservatives who supported his brother's administration, at times echoing their complaints about the Obama administration's foreign
policy. In February 2010, for example, Bush told Newsmax that he didn't think "the military option should ever be taken off the table" with respect to Iran, adding in November that the Obama administration's policies toward the country had "empower[ed]
bad behavior in Tehran." Bush also mused that "sheer ineptitude and incompetency and corruption will bring down the [Hugo] Chavez regime" in Venezuela, "but we can't sit back passively and let this happen naturally." Instead, Bush advocated offering U.S.
support to "elements of Venezuelan society that are fighting back against" the democratically elected Chavez, who eventually died of cancer in early 2013 after being resoundingly reelected.
Source: International Relations Center "RightWeb" on Jeb Bush
, Apr 1, 2014
Neo-isolationism and American passivity both have dangers
Jeb Bush attacked the White House's approach to foreign policy in a speech given to the Republican Jewish Coalition. Bush focused on economic policy in his remarks but also impressed the pro-Israel group with his defense of muscular American foreign
policy."He showed a lot of knowledge about foreign policy that he must have been working hard to acquire," said Ari Fleischer, the former White House Press Secretary and a board member of the RJC, noting Bush discussed diplomatic challenges presented
by countries like Ukraine, Russia and Moldova. "He was very rough on the president in terms of his handling of foreign policy, referring to the dangers of 'American passivity.'"
The son and brother of presidents, Bush cautioned the Republican party
against "neo-isolationism," a line universally understood as a shot at Rand Paul. Bush also pushed back on Democratic attacks that whenever a Republican calls for a more activist foreign policy that they are "warmongering."
Source: Time Magazine, "American Passivity"
, Mar 28, 2014
South Korea success: 1952 devastation to 2014 first-world
I want to tell a story about a country that was the poorest country on the planet in 1952. The country was Korea: a country that had been ravaged by war; a country that had the highest illiteracy rate in the world; a country with no natural resources;
devastated in every possible way. Fast forward. Over 62 years, not that long in historical terms, Korea now is a first-world country. Korea has the highest literacy rate of all the countries in the world. Korean moms and dads, some of them, save
everything they have, to assure that their children get tutorial help. When Pres. Obama was in Korea a year ago, he asked, "What is the big challenge that you face in Korea today?" it's that parents want to start English in
4th grade instead of 5th grade, and it's creating enormous political pressure on the system. But If you make a command-focused commitment to education, you can change the course of a country's future.
Source: Speech at PPF 2013 Empower SC Conference
, Jun 27, 2013
Supports economic cooperation between US and China
Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping met with former Governor of Florida Jeb Bush Tuesday at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, calling for closer cooperation between China and the United States.
For his part, Bush said that he will continue making contributions to the development of bilateral ties and economic cooperation between the two nations.
Source: Xinhua News (China), "Xi meets Jeb Bush"
, Jan 17, 2012
Honorary Cuban to exile community in Miami
Fidel Castro may have died by the time Jeb can make it to the Oval Office, but what if he hasn't? What then is the man who many Miami Cubans consider an "honorary Cuban" to do? Invade?
The pressure for him to do something beyond merely continuing the embargo will be intense, given his heated rhetoric over the last quarter century.In Miami, when the exile community speaks, Jeb listens.
For years, he has listened--and then acted.
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the city was the nexus of anticommunist activism in Central America. Jeb, who spoke their language fluently.
Jeb, who accepted without reservation their need to overthrow leftist governments and hunt down and kill leftist rebels. Jeb, who would show up in a guayabera shirt at rallies, chanting "Libre! Libre!" with everyone else.
Source: America's Next Bush, by S.V. Date, p.339
, Feb 15, 2007
Two years in Venezuela; majored in Latin American studies
In at least one way, a Jeb-directed foreign policy would be different from that of his brother, if only because Jeb would take personal interest in it. George is not a details guy. Jeb is. George also was open about his lack of interest in countries
other than our own.Jeb, in contrast, not only majored in Latin American studies but actually lived for the better part of two years in Venezuela without the accoutrements of officialdom. Whether this results in a different overall direction
or merely a more competent version of the same old story cannot be known.
Overall, though, it is hard to imagine that the basic thrust of American diplomacy would be terribly different. Jeb would have far more knowledge of
this hemisphere, but countries in South and Central America need to understand that this is not necessarily a good thing. It's not enough, for example, to be a democratic nation. You must also then vote for pro-capitalist leaders.
Source: America's Next Bush, by S.V. Date, p.344
, Feb 15, 2007
1988: Joined relief effort for Armenian earthquake
In 1988 a terrible earthquake devastated Armenia and killed at least 50,000 people. Into this void stepped AmeriCares, a wonderful relief organization started by Dad's grade school classmate Bob McCauley. McCauley planned to send a plane loaded with
medical supplies to Yerevan. So my brother Jeb & his 12-year-old son, George P., volunteered to go.Just about every structure was off of its foundation. There were people literally walking through the street with very little clothes on and starving.
"With tears in his eyes, the son of President-elect George Bush presented candy and gifts today to brighten the Christmas of children injured in Armenia's earthquake," read the article. "This is probably the greatest Christmas gift I could give myself
or my own," Jeb was quoted.
"The best thing about that was Gorbachev telling me afterwards that when Jeb went to church in Armenia and shed a tear there, it did more for the US-Russia relationship than anything I could possibly imagine," Dad recalled.
Source: My Father, My President, by Doro Koch Bush, p.269-270
, Oct 6, 2006
1990: Defended anti-Castro terrorist as patriot in exile
Jeb petitioned the Justice Department in 1990 on behalf of Orlando Bosch, who was in prison for having entered the US illegally. The anti-Castro terrorist, who was implicated in a car-bombing assassination and was notorious for having masterminded the
bombing of a Cubana Airlines Flight in Oct. 1976, which killed all 73 on board.At the time George H. W. Bush was CIA director. The US sanctioned terrorism against Cuba and routinely trained commandos to infiltrate the island. Jeb, who planned to run
for governor of Florida, represented a rabid anti-Castro constituency, a voting bloc that held his father's anti-Castro actions at the CIA in the highest esteem. Jeb's public support for paroling Bosch further enhanced his standing in the Cuban
community, which considered Bosch a patriot in exile and honored him for his murderous bombings around the globe. At this son's behest, George Bush intervened to obtain the release of the Cuban terrorist from prison and later granted Bosch US residency.
Source: The Family, by Kitty Kelley, p.407-408
, Sep 14, 2004
Support Israel in its battle against terrorism
Gov. Jeb Bush pledged to support Israel in its battle against terrorism and said Americans have a better understanding of the fear Israelis face daily after living through the Sept. 11 attacks. In a speech celebrating Israel's 56th Independence Day, Bush
lauded his brother, President Bush, for reinforcing the alliance between the two countries at a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Gov. Bush said the April 14 meeting "made little doubt about our country's commitment to Israel and the
vision of two states living in peace and security."President Bush endorsed Sharon's offer to withdraw from Gaza and parts of the West Bank in exchange for concessions on settlements. Palestinians criticized the plan. Gov. Bush said, "This new US
policy, I think, will bring about the chance of lasting peace far better than the current status quo. And if there's any attempt to impose a different vision, the US is committed to intervene and provide support to the state of Israel."
Source: Associated Press in St. Petersburg Times
, Apr 27, 2004
Role in the world: military strength and moral clarity.
Bush signed Project for the New American Century Statement of Principles
American foreign policy is adrift. Conservatives have criticized the incoherent policies of the Clinton Administration. They have also resisted isolationist impulses from within their own ranks. But conservatives have not confidently advanced a strategi
Source: PNAC Principles 97-PNAC-FP on Jun 3, 1997
Page last updated: Jan 19, 2015
