Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said Thursday that he would not have gone into Iraq in 2003, seeking to clarify his position on the issue after being presented with questions on the war several times over the past week.
Given the benefit of hindsight, “I would not have gone into Iraq,” Mr. Bush said an an event in Arizona Thursday, according to The Associated Press.
A day earlier, Mr. Bush said at a town hall meeting in Nevada that the decision to go to war was too important to reduce to a hypothetical, according to ABC News.
“If we’re going to get into hypotheticals, I think it does a disservice for a lot of people that sacrificed a lot,” Mr. Bush said. “Going back in time and talking about hypotheticals — what would have happened, what could have happened — I think does a disservice for them. What we ought to be focusing on is what are the lessons learned.”
The issue resurfaced after Fox News’ Megyn Kelly asked Mr. Bush in an interview if he would have authorized the invasion “knowing what we know now,” and Mr. Bush said he would have.
“And so would have Hillary Clinton, just to remind everybody. And so would have almost everybody that was confronted with the intelligence they got,” he said.
Appearing Tuesday on Sean Hannity’s radio show, Mr. Bush said he must have interpreted the question incorrectly and that he was talking about a decision that would have been made given the information at the time. He said then didn’t know what the decision would have been.
“That’s a hypothetical, but the simple fact is, mistakes were made,” he said.
Several of Mr. Bush’s potential rivals for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination have likewise said this week that in hindsight, they would not have authorized the invasion.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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