July 8, 2015
WE'RE NOT LIBERTARIANS:
Jeb Bush Lays Out His Foreign Policy Vision (Jamie Weinstein, 07/05/2015, Politico)
Talking to TheDC, Jeb Bush seemed to place less emphasis on democracy promotion than his brother did and some of the other 2016 Republican presidential contenders, like South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, have. While Bush said liberal democracy is "one of the values that we need to promote," he added it is hardly the only, or even most important, one."It has to be tempered with the realization that not every country is immediately going to become a little 'd' democratic country," Bush said. "Iraq would be a good example of that I think."But, Bush argued, a focus on security can ultimately lead to liberal democracy."I think ultimately security will lead towards democracy and having an engaged America will help make that so, but you cannot have democracy without security," Bush said when asked if he could imagine considering America's missions in Afghanistan and Iraq as successes if those countries don't end up as liberal democracies.
Democracy without security isn't worth having, but nor is security without democracy. We get iimpatient with these places, but they work it out eventually.
Posted by Orrin Judd at July 8, 2015 12:34 PM
Tweet