Jeb Bush: "I Would Not Have Gone Into Iraq"
Finally, a whole four days after he first said that yes, he would have gone into Iraq, then said he misheard the question, and then said the question is mean to our troops, Jeb Bush has finally given us a definitive(-ish?) answer: Knowing what we know today, Jeb Bush would not have authorized an invasion in Iraq. Probably.
[There was a video here]
He gave the long-awaited answer at an event in Tempe, Arizona earlier today, saying, “If we’re all supposed to ask hypothetical questions: ‘Knowing what we know now, what would you have done?’—I would not have engaged. I would not have gone into Iraq.”
Of course, the push away from his brother’s past mistakes feels a little thin in light of the media frenzy his previous response had caused—the one that came after he “misheard” Megyn Kelly’s question. Still, the fact that he’s willing to define himself as even remotely different from George W. Bush, who’s confirmed that he in fact has no regrets over invading Iraq, is somewhat promising.
There is, however, still the issue that Jeb apparently would have been comfortable going into Iraq given the information at the time, which was highly suspect even then. After all, even Carl Levin—who was chairman of the Armed Services Committee and very likely confronted with the same intelligence—voted against the war.
But hey, at least it’s something—you know, assuming Jeb doesn’t change his mind again tomorrow.
