By Uche Onyebadi

Bush and Iraqi war? This suggestion brings back memories of the first and second U.S. wars in Iraq. Presidents George Herbert Walker Bush and George Walker Bush, the father and son duo of presidents of the United States at different times, launched blistering and expensive wars in Iraq. But, while the senior Bush is acknowledged to have had genuine reasons to unleash U.S. men and women in uniform and awesome armament against the regime of Saddam Hussein, the younger Bush went in on what turned out to be the phantom of weapons of mass destruction.

Little does anyone attempt to bring in yet another member of the Bush political dynasty, John Ellis “Jeb” Bush, into discussions about the war in Iraq. Yet, last week Jeb dominated headlines with his comment about the war in Iraq launched by his father and brother. It was in the form of Jeb’s response to a rather simple question about the Iraqi war authorized by his brother, George.

George Bush

Jeb, who is known to harbour presidential ambitions in the 2016 election, was on one of those make-me-shine interviews at FoxNews when the anchor, Megyn Kelly, asked him an innocuous question. “Knowing what we know now, would you have authorized the invasion?” asked the lady, perhaps with the expectation that Jeb will use the opportunity to ingratiate himself with viewers. But what came out of Jeb’s mouth must have startled Kegyn. His response? “I would have, and so would have Hillary Clinton, just to remind everybody. And so would have just about everybody that was confronted with the intelligence that they got.”

Jeb said he would have authorized the war in the face of the knowledge we now have, that there was no weapon of mass destruction in Iraq, which was the reason his brother used to launch the costly war. Even Hillary who was mentioned in the response has since retracted her views that the war was justified. Practically all current presidential hopefuls in the Republican camp last week distanced themselves from Jeb’s response, leaving this third Bush struggling to correct the gaffe.

Politicians are known to provide embarrassing answers to questions from reporters. So, you might say that Jeb’s situation was not unique. But, here is the uniqueness. Soon after the gaffe became public Jeb got another opportunity to correct the error. This time it was at Sean Hannity’s radio program barely forty-eight hours after Jeb’s slip of tongue. Sean is another friendly face and has a programme on Fox News. And, hear is how Jeb “corrected” his earlier mistake:   “I interpreted the question wrong, I guess I was talking about given what people knew then, would you have done it, rather than knowing what we know now. And knowing what we know now, you know, clearly there were mistakes.” He then went on say more. “I don’t know what that decision would have been, that’s a hypothetical…The simple fact is mistakes were made. … And so we need to learn from the past to make sure we’re strong and secure going forward.”

If Jeb thought his circumlocution would help him wriggle out of the quagmire, it turned out that he had miscalculated once again. He was severely derided in the media and his supporters were at a loss to understand why he could not have provided a simple answer to a simple question. It took four days and other interviews for Jeb to finally realize and acknowledge that what he needed to say was that knowing what everyone now knows about the Iraqi debacle, he would not have authorized that military invasion.

That “Iraq war” question was not the only issue which made everyone raise eyebrows about Jeb’s readiness for office. So far, he has not formally announced his interest in the job. Rather, he is busy doing fund-raising across the country. That is not a handicap. What appears to be his albatross is the impression that he is not his own man; that as president, he would govern under the shadow of his father and brother, both ex-presidents. This public perception has led Jeb to use every opportunity to announce that he was his own man and would make his own decisions based on facts and circumstances as he understood them.

However, as Jeb was busy trying to convince political pundits that he was his own man, he came out about two weeks ago to announce at a public forum that he would make his brother George, his foreign policy adviser on U.S. foreign policy with regard to Israel and the Middle East. Knowing that George Bush’s policy in that region is not what could be written about in glowing language, the “I am my own man” claim by Jeb even raised more questions than it previously did.

Jeb used to be the governor of Florida. It is generally agreed that he did a good job as governor, something that gives him a good cushion in his presidential bid. Another issue that might help his presidential ambition is the fact that he is married to a Hispanic lady and speaks fluent Spanish. In the U.S. political environment where Latinos are increasingly having a say in determining who wins an election, Jeb might not find it difficult to court Latino voters. Added to all this is the well-known thinking that mainstream Republican king-makers would prefer Jeb as a moderate candidate to his more right-wing colleagues like Senator Ted Cruz or even the relatively middle-of-the-road candidate like Rand Paul. His power to attract rich donors was demonstrated some weeks ago when millionaire businessman Henry Kravis hosted a private dinner for Jeb. Each of the 25 specially chosen attendees paid no less than $100,000 “attendance fee” to gain entrance to the private occasion.

Raising money to run the very expensive U.S. presidential election does not appear to be a handicap to Jeb. What is increasingly becoming questionable is his spontaneity in fielding questions in a most articulate manner. That is the primary quality expected of anyone running for office in the U.S. A.

Jeb’s increasing number of political gaffes might just be enough to derail his ambition, his army of millionaire donors and name recognition notwithstanding.