On a range of political issues, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is promoting positions and rhetoric distinctly in line with those of his brother, former President George W. Bush,
The Washington Post reported.
The Post listed a range of foreign policy issues on which Jeb sounds like George: If elected, the U.S. won't be on speaking terms with Cuba and will partner more closely with Israel. He also plans to tighten sanctions on Iran and order the U.S. military to root out "barbarians" and "evildoers" across the world.
"Far from running from or playing down the views once expressed by his brother George W. Bush, Jeb Bush is embracing them — and emphasizing them," the Post said.
"But by endorsing some of his brother's views, he puts himself at odds with most Americans, who remain wary of the two wars launched during the last Bush presidency."
Duke University professor of political science, Peter Feaver, who once advised George W. Bush on Iraq, told the Post that so far Jeb Bush "doesn't feel that he has to emphasize differences with the previous Presidents Bush. But he's not insecure about it or defensive about it — he doesn't list 20 things that he would do differently."
As Bush lays the groundwork for his campaign, he is drawing on both his personal experiences and a growing group of foreign policy advisers to stake out his positions on international issues.
In public comments, Bush tends to blame President Barack Obama for his "consistent policy of pullback and retrenchment."
"It's not that we necessarily have to be the world's policeman," Bush told a Denver crowd last week, according to the Post. The country needs "a consistent policy where our friends know that we have their back and our enemies fear us a little bit — or our possible enemies believe that the United States will act in its own security interest."
And when it comes to Iraq, Bush is broadly supportive of his brother's policy there, the Post said.
"There were mistakes in Iraq for sure," he said during a speech in Chicago in February according to the Post. "Using the intelligence capability that everybody embraced about weapons of mass destruction, it turns out to not be accurate."
Nevertheless, he described the 2007 Iraq troop "surge" as "one of the most heroic acts of courage politically that any president's done."
It was, he said, "hugely successful and created a stability that when the new president came in, he could build on to create a fragile but more stable situation."
The Post said that Bush appears undeterred by public opinion polls that suggest his views are not shared by a majority of voters and, instead, appears to believe that global events might bring Americans around to his point of view.
"When you start beheading Americans in far-off lands because a void was created because we pull back, guess what — people's attitudes change about that pretty darn quick," Bush said during an event in San Francisco in January.
"You can't run foreign policy as a leader by following the polls. You have to persuade the American people — even if it is tough for them because of the economic situation — that we have to be engaged in the world."