Bush needs total recall

Thank you, Jeb Bush, for steering the Republican presidential race away from whether Donald Trump implied that premenstrual syndrome caused Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly to question him pointedly during last week's debate.

Bush, however, made a dubious choice of a new topic in bringing up the Iraq War, which most Americans consider the signature failure of his brother's presidency. In fact, Bush had avoided the subject for months after his stumbling answers to reporters who asked if he would have gone to war knowing what intelligence later revealed.

Acknowledging the futility of trying to dodge the question forever, Bush addressed it somewhat in a speech Tuesday night before supporters in Simi Valley, Calif. But rather than focus on President George W. Bush's decision to invade Iraq, he blamed President Obama and his secretary of state, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, for losing the war by quitting too soon.

"Rushing away from danger can be every bit as unwise as rushing into danger," Bush said. That sounds awfully close to telling children who play with matches to slowly leave the room after they set it on fire. Does Bush really expect Americans to forget that the genesis of the war was a misinformed effort to find what didn't exist: Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction?

There is validity to Bush's assertion that the void left after the U.S. troop withdrawal allowed the fermentation that empowered Islamic State extremists. But in his selective recall of events, Bush left out the fact that the timetable for U.S. troops to leave Iraq in 2011 was part of the status-of-forces agreement signed by his brother in 2008.

Bush isn't the only one who believes Obama should have negotiated a new agreement that allowed some troops to stay longer. And Perhaps Obama didn't try hard enough to get a new pact. But it is disingenuous to suggest he didn't try. His problem was Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who, in trying to prove that he was not a U.S. puppet, refused to give any remaining soldiers immunity from prosecution in Iraqi courts.

All the candidates would do well not to dwell too much in the past, but in particular Bush, given his inability to escape association with his brother's policies. As for fighting Islamic State, Americans crave viable alternatives to what is being done. Bush's call for stronger ties to Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, more support for Iraqi and Kurd forces, and more air strikes virtually mirrors Obama's moves.

There is plenty of time for each of the presidential contenders to get people discussing good ideas for making this country better - instead of talking about PMS.