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In a speech planned for Wednesday at an event hosted by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, Jeb Bush is expected to hammer home the theme that he is “his own man,” and that while he admires the services to the nation by his father and brother, he will not “be captive” to their foreign policies.
The Washington Post, based on prepared remarks provided by Bush’s aides in advance, reports Bush’s planned remarks this way:
I recognize that as a result, my views will often be held up in comparison to theirs’— sometimes in contrast to theirs’…I love my father and my brother. I admire their service to the nation and the difficult decisions they had to make. But I am my own man — and my views are shaped by my own thinking and own experiences. Each president learns from those who came before — their principles … their adjustments. One thing we know is this: Every president inherits a changing world … and changing circumstances.
The Post provides additional excerpts. Here are some of them:
We can project power and enforce peaceful stability in far-off areas of the globe.
To do so, I believe we need to root our foreign policy in a set of priorities and principles.
…
Our words and our actions must match — so that the entire world knows we say what we mean and mean what we say.
[Referring to the Obama administration:] ‘They draw red lines … then erase them…With grandiosity, they announce resets and disengage.’
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The President’s word needs to be backed by the greatest military power in the world
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Having a military that is equal to any threat is not only essential for the commander in chief
Because I believe, fundamentally, that weakness invites war … and strength encourages peace.
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America does not have the luxury of withdrawing from the world — our security, our prosperity and our values demand that we remain engaged and involved in often distant places.
Over at The New Yorker, satirist Andy Borowitz has a slightly different take on Jeb Bush’s remarks.
In a satire piece titled “Bush Says He Will Harm Nation Differently Than His Brother,” Borowitz writes:
“A lot of people are looking at me and thinking that I’m just going to be a rerun of my brother,” Bush told reporters before the speech. “They are greatly underestimating my ability to create chaos and destruction in ways that are uniquely mine.”
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As an example, Bush said, he was unlikely to invade Iraq for a third time, calling such an action “too derivative.”
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“George already did it, and Dad did it before him,” he said. “Call it my independent streak, if you will, but I want to spawn some disasters of my own.”
Borowitz adds that Jeb Bush and his foreign-policy team are “already scanning the globe for ‘new and different places’ where the United States could become involved in open-ended and pointless quagmires.”
Borowitz concludes his take on Bush’s expected remarks “quoting” him: “I see boundless opportunities for the reckless and totally optional insertion of American military force. No offense to my brother, but there were a few spots that George missed.”
You be the judge of whether Borowitz’ words are, once again, satire imitating life or whether the Post’s report is life imitating satire.
