Jeb Bush on ISIS: "Tighten the noose" and "take them out"
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush offered a robust criticism of President Obama Wednesday during a speech to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, arguing that his presidency has weakened the country.
"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," Bush said.
He's hardly the first potential 2016 Republican contender to criticize the president, and by extension, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Foreign policy is likely to be a more prominent issue during the next presidential campaign due to global hot spots stemming from the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
On the threat from ISIS in particular, Bush said the U.S. needs to "tighten the noose" and "take them out," and fight the group with other partners in the region.
"It's made more complicated by our pullback because there's...no trust right now the United States is serious about this, the minute there's a problem, the feeling is that we're going to cut and run," Bush said.
He also suggested that the president had mishandled other issues, including nuclear negotiations with Iran and the restoration of diplomatic ties with Cuba.
"I wouldn't call what we did a reset. I would call it bad negotiations to start with because we got nothing in return," Bush said of the president's move to normalize relations with Cuba.
On the talks to roll back Iran's nuclear program -- which Bush called "the defining foreign policy issue" at the moment -- Bush said the administration had proved itself unequal to the task.
"President Obama said that that was the goal, stop Iran's nuclear program. Now we're told the goal has changed, and the point of these negotiations isn't to solve the problem, it's to manage it." He added that Congress should act to reinstate sanctions if the talks fail, and should be required to approve any final agreement.
But Bush also had a second mission in the speech: to separate himself from the unpopular policies pursued by his brother, former President George W. Bush.
"I am my own man," he said. "I also have been lucky to have a father and a brother who both have shaped America's foreign policy from the Oval Office. 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," he added. "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."
Beyond ways to fight ISIS, Bush did not specifically talk about his vision for Iraq, where Former President George W. Bush launched a war. Asked about it during the Q&A portion of his speech, however, Bush conceded, "There were mistakes in Iraq for sure."
Bush has recruited several cabinet members from his father's and brother's administrations, including James Baker, George H.W. Bush's secretary of state, and Michael Chertoff, the nation's second homeland security secretary under George W. Bush. A Bush aide told CBS News that the former governor that the names represent a "preliminary and informal group" committed to supporting Bushadvising him as he considers pursuing the Republican presidential nomination.