Jeb Bush has a different take than his brother, George, when it comes to promoting democracy around the world as a part of the United States' policy efforts: he doesn't think it always works.
"It has to be tempered with the realization that not every country is immediately going to become a little 'd' democratic country," the former Florida governor and current presidential candidate
told The Daily Caller in an interview published Monday. "Iraq would be a good example of that I think."
Democracy promotion was a large part of former President George W. Bush's foreign policy, with him declaring that it is the United States' goal "to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world" in his second inaugural address.
There are other GOP candidates, such as South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, who have said democracy should be promoted, but Jeb Bush says focusing on security is the way to lead to democracy.
"You cannot have democracy without security," Bush told the Daily Caller when asked if U.S. missions in the Middle East can be considered successful if countries don't become democracies.
Bush also commented on President Barack Obama's push to normalize relations with Cuba, but did not disagree that relations should be kept up with other countries with histories of human rights violations, such as China or Saudi Arabia.
The difference is, Bush said, that "we got something in return" when diplomatic relations were negotiated with those countries, including China entering into the World Trade Organization.
"In the case of Vietnam, we got parity as it related to POWs and MIAs," he said. But with Cuba, "we've got nothing in return for this effort other than to have, I guess, Barack Obama claim that this happened under his watch. This is a legacy building thing that perpetuates the regime."
He didn't answer whether he would have stood more forcefully
behind Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak, but instead complained about Obama's presidential tenure.
"Apart from believing America's presence in the world, America's leadership in the world hasn't been a force for good and as we pull back it creates, all over the world, insecurity — there isn't a doctrine that guides our policy," Bush said.
"It could be a mix of advocacy of freedom and democracy with security, with the focus also on our economic interests. But whatever it is, it hasn’t been expressed in a way that creates consistency, that creates transparency of what America believes in and what America stands for."
His opinions on Mubarak's successor, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the general who removed the Muslim Brotherhood-led government in a July 2013 coup, are mixed though. He sees el-Sisi as one of a handful of few Arab leaders willing "to stand up against these Islamic terrorists."
However, the relationship is "not as tight as it could be," said Bush, who believes the Egyptian leader should be rewarded for standing up to extremists.
But in 2003, his brother accused leaders like Mubarak of fostering extremism.
"Sixty years of Western nations excusing and accommodating the lack of freedom in the Middle East did nothing to make us safe — because in the long run, stability cannot be purchased at the expense of liberty," he said. "As long as the Middle East remains a place where freedom does not flourish, it will remain a place of stagnation, resentment and violence ready for export."
Related stories:
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.