Total misunderstanding of Islamic terrorist threat: Jeb Bush

Washington, Feb 28: Former Florida Governor and Republican Presidential aspirant Jeb Bush has said that a total misunderstanding about the threat of Islamic terrorism is stopping the US from developing a strategy to combat it.

"This total misunderstanding of what this Islamic terrorist threat is, is very dangerous because it doesn't allow you to have the right strategy to deal with this," Bush, who is the son of President George H W Bush and brother of President George W Bush, said at the Conservative Political Action Conference yesterday.

"We need to heighten awareness of what this threat means and be honest about it, which is why, I think, Prime Minister Netanyahu's visit is going to be really important. He's going to be able to tell the truth on this," he said. Bush also stressed on the need to engage with the world and "re-establish relationships" with other countries to counter the threat of ISIS.

"We can't disengage from the world and expect a good result. As we pull back, voids are filled. Iraq is the best example of that. "So, where to from here? We need to reestablish relationships with countries that we have managed to mess up. I mean, we've managed to mess up almost every relationship in the world, if you think about, including Canada, which is hard to do. But we've done it," he said.

"Egypt - we got it wrong three times in a row in the last few years. Jordan - the king comes asking for support. I have yet to see - perhaps it went covertly, but I haven't heard anything," he added.

"Turkey - all of these countries have doubts about America. We need to be engaged in the world, build a coalition to isolate and then put ISIS around a noose and take them out. And that can be done, not by ourselves unilaterally. That has to be done with American leadership," he said. Bush said he liked the idea of not putting the conditions of boots on the ground so that they can have the intelligence capabilities and the special forces capabilities to make a difference.

"I like these ideas, but all of them require re-engaging with the neighbourhood so that they'd consider it a high priority for their own interest to be able to participate in this," he noted. "The negotiations with Iran make this far more complicated. The idea that we're going to be tripping over, finding a deal, negotiating downward, creating an unsafe world, and basically legitimising the ayatollah and his - and his nuclear capability is really troubling," he said.

PTI