Jeb! Goes All Stupid on Iraq with ‘Skin in the Game’ Comments

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After finally admitting that his brother’s invasion of Iraq wasn’t a good idea based on what we know now, Jeb! decided that he wasn’t being fair – not to history, but to his brother.

Since then it turns out that torture is the way to treat our enemies and just the other day, announced while in Iowa – which always brings out the stupid in Republican candidates – that taking out Saddam was a sweet deal: “I’ll tell you, taking out Saddam Hussein turned out to be a pretty good deal.”

Right. Other than it was the wrong country (no al Qaeda there, cowboy!), and killed 4,000 Americans and tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis (making refugees of a million more), cost $1.7 trillion (yes, that’s more than Planned Parenthood’s Funding) and paved the way for the rise of ISIL, it’s worked out great. Oh, and never mind that the Iraq War, like his invasion of Afghanistan, was unfunded and helped tank the U.S. economy.

Granted, he blames ISIL on the Obama/Clinton team, but just ask yourself: How can you not want to do it all again, in Iran this time? Or maybe Syria, or some other place where Muslims can be found?

Larry Wilmore had something to say about Jeb’s blame-shifting:

Jeb! says, “I’m not saying this because I’m a Bush. I’m proud of what he (Dubya) did to create a secure environment for our country.”

Right. Excluding 9/11 and 3,000 dead Americans + two wars, while his party obsesses over 4 dead in Benghazi. Republicans have a peculiar way of looking at reality. Jeb! is not alone, but Jeb! is the only guy running named Bush!

On Friday at the Iowa State Fair, Jeb! piled on himself. First of all, there was this bizarre comment made while responding to hecklers:

BUSH: First of all, the Iraqis want our help. They want to know that we have skin in the game, that we’re committed to this. We don’t have to…

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: They booted us out in 2011.

BUSH: Excuse me?

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: We had to get out in 2011.

BUSH: We didn’t have to get out in 2011.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: Your brother signed the deal.

BUSH: It could’ve been modified and that was the expectation. Everybody in Iraq and everybody in Washington knew that this deal could’ve been expanded and now…

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: Your brother signed a bad deal.

[[AD2]]
Jeb compounded this appallingly stupid statement by reminding usthat not only is Dubya his most trusted adviser, but said “Paul Wolfowitz is giving some advice.”

**WARNING** Wolfowitz was, of course, George W. Bush’s deputy secretary of defense. **WARNING**

Think Neocon. Think exporting “democracy” at the point of a bayonet. Because, what says freedom better than some well-intentioned military aggression?

Of course, a list released by the Bush campaign back in February had Wolfowitz’s name on it, but why on earth would he remind us?

Wolfowitz, as David Corn reminds us, was the guy promoting the idea that al Qaeda was in Iraq – when it wasn’t – and of course, once we invaded, that changed and gave birth to the Islamic State, the worst thing to happen to the Middle East since Timur (Tamerlane) left a pile of skulls where Baghdad used to be.

An admission that the U.S. bungled in Iraq was forthcoming ten years after the invasion, but it wasn’t the decision to invade that troubled Wolfowitz, but rather that we didn’t have an Iraqi regime to put in place right away.

At the time, The Washington Post released the Venn Diagram from Hell:

In one diagram, there is pretty much all the reason you need to keep Jeb! far, far away from the White House and our country’s future. In these recent turettes-like outbursts, he has just added to those reasons.

All he has to do to be taken seriously at this point is crawl his way past the fired CEO of Hewlett-Packard. If Jeb! wants to lose, he is going about it the right way.

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Hrafnkell Haraldsson

Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen's Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.

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