Jeb Bush to attack Hillary Clinton on Iraq record
In a speech Tuesday night, Jeb Bush will argue that the Obama administration has failed to stop the growth of ISIS, and he will place part of the blame squarely on Hillary Clinton, who was secretary of state during Mr. Obama's first term as president.
Calling the withdrawal that followed the 2009 surge of troops in Iraq a "fatal error," Bush, according to excerpts released by his campaign, is expected to pose the question, "Where was Secretary of State Clinton in all of this? Like the president himself, she had opposed the surge ... then joined in claiming credit for its success ... then stood by as that hard-won victory by American and allied forces was thrown away."
"So eager to be the history-makers, they failed to be the peacemakers," Bush will say of the president and his secretary of state.
While the Status of Forces agreement signed by then-President George W. Bush and Iraqi President Nouri al-Maliki set a timetable for the drawdown of U.S. troops, Mr. Obama's former CIA director and secretary of state, Leon Panetta, said he was uncomfortable with pulling out all the troops, and he wrote in a book that Mr.Obama "failed to heed his advisers who wanted to leave troops in Iraq past December 2011, which may have contributed to the rise of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)."
Further, in a slap at the hundreds of thousands of miles she logged as secretary, he'll note, "In all her record-setting travels, she stopped by Iraq exactly once."
Bush is going to the Reagan Library in Southern California to lay out his plan for defeating ISIS. If elected president, Bush promises to "turn this around," and rebuild the armed forces. A winning strategy, he'll argue "depends ultimately on the military strength that underwrites American influence."
Bush will also criticize the White House for its avoidance of the mention of Islam in identifying the terrorists associated with ISIS. White House aides have said that Mr. Obama won't refer to violence by Muslims as "Islamic terrorism" because he wants to deny them the ability to call the clash a religious war.
Bush will dismiss the White House's idea that "the tide of war is receding" as just "wishful thinking by the administration." Rather, he'll say instead radical Islam "has been spreading like a pandemic."
Clinton and Bush have been singling each other out for criticism often of late. Last week, Clinton attacked Bush on his record with minorities, when both were addressing the Urban League.
And Monday night, their campaigns were fighting on Twitter and vandalizing each other's logos.
CBS News' Alan He contributed to this report