JEB BUSH'S FIRST BIG LIE

There was a sinister message delivered by Jeb Bush yesterday to the reportedly nonpartisan Chicago Council on Global Affairs. It was clear that his recently named list of his advisors, who undoubtedly were the authors of his speech, which were the same authors of the most contentious policies of his brother and father’s presidencies. In addition to the disturbing content of the speech, I had a deep feeling of despair in reference to the state of political thinking in the United States.

Reminiscent of his father and his brother’s mention of Iraq during the speech, he named Iran as the target for his next war. The most sinister aspect of the speech was the clear desire to reinstate the American big-stick diplomacy; we tell those countries we negotiate with what they will or will not do. If they do not comply, we remove them from power. He clearly demonstrated he does not understand the difference between fear and respect when he said, ‘‘The great irony of the Obama presidency is this: Someone who came to office promising greater engagement with the world has left America less influential in the world’’. All of this was disturbing; however, most disturbing were the names on the list of proposed advisors. Remember the person named Mitt Romney; he too had a list of advisors names as well—exactly the same list. The disturbing aspect of this is that it suggests warmongers control the Republican Party and that no matter whom the candidate he is or might be, that person will be a puppet of the party.

Charles Krauthammer, the intellectual voice of republican philosophy, and columnist has carefully laid out the format for foreign policy in his book, Things That Matter (2013). The only acceptable relationship is one in which you or your country has military dominance, which guarantees profits, which in turn, guarantees economic dominance. That has been the basis of American foreign policy since the inception of the United States of America.

This philosophy is equivalent to a teenager showing up at the door of United Nations in New York dressed in a black trench coat, armed with awesome assault rifles, and wearing ammunition belts, then demanding respect—out of fear. As pointed out by Stephen Kinzer in his book, Overthrown (2006), toppling government who stood in the way of our political and economic goals, it has worked until we got to the disasters of Korea, Vietnam, and Iraq in the Middle East. Bush and his advisors learned nothing from the harsh lessons over the last 65 years of war but are seriously jealous that Obama has. His remarks about Netanyahu unmistakably tell us he has no idea of the political sentiment in Israel, the United States, or in the world concerning the out of control growth of anti-Semitism; in fact, he fed into it.

What Jeb Bush said in his speech is that his Presidency would be a disaster for America. When he said he was his own man, was his first big lie in the campaign.   

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