Jeb Bush says U.S. ground troops needed for ‘total destruction’ of Islamic State

Rolling out a national security agenda focused on the mounting terrorist threat, Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush on Wednesday called for the “total destruction” of the terrorist army known as Islamic State with a war that includes U.S. ground troops.

“The United States should not delay in leading a global coalition to take out ISIS with overwhelming force,” Mr. Bush said in a speech at the Citadel, the military college in Charleston, South Carolina.

In his call to war, Mr. Bush vowed to reject President Obama’s and former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s “diminished view of America’s role in the world.”

“The fate of millions, the security of our own people, and the cause of human freedom itself, all depend on the decisions we make in these coming years,” the former Florida governor said. “Bad things — and sometimes very bad things happen when America steps away from hard challenges. It is time for American leadership again, and that leadership requires a change in course.”

Mr. Bush also proposed an end to automatic defense cuts and an increase in military spending to enhance U.S. military superiority. He also called for expanding the Army by 40,000 soldiers and the Marine Corps by 4,000 Marines.

The speech was originally scheduled to present Mr. Bush’s plan to rebuild the military, but the focus shifted to his plan for a path forward against Islamic State terrorists following the Paris attack last week.

“Radical Islamic terrorists have declared war on the western world. Their aim is our total destruction,” he said. “We can’t withdraw from this threat, nor negotiate with it. We have but one choice: to defeat it.”

Mr. Bush, who has previously called for sending U.S. troops into the fight in Iraq, has pivoted to a more hawkish stance after struggling early in the campaign to separate himself from criticism of his brother, former President George W. Bush, who decided to invade Iraq in 2003.

Still, he cautioned that the U.S. can’t go it alone.

“The United States — in conjunction with our NATO allies and more Arab partners — will need to increase our presence on the ground,” he said. “But the bulk of these ground troops will need to come from local forces that we have built workable relationships with.”

The size of the deployment of U.S. combat troops would be dictated by Pentagon recommendations, Mr. Bush said.

Delivered a stinging critique of the foreign and defense policies of Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton, who is the front-runner to win the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, Mr. Bush blamed the “absence of American leadership” with creating the power vacuum that allowed Islamic State to flourish.

The Islamic State, a terrorist army also known by the acronym ISIS and ISIL, controls a swath of territory in Iraq and Syrian the size of the United Kingdom. It has spread destruction and mayhem from Africa to Afghanistan, and now into Europe.

“America has had enough of empty words, of declarations detached from reality of an administration with no strategy or no intention of victory,” Mr. Bush said.

He later added, “We must address the underlying conflicts in Syria and Iraq, which created this crisis — one that spiraled out of control as President Obama and Hillary Clinton failed to act — and today present a critical threat to international security.”