Getty 2016 Jeb Bush to assail Clinton, Obama on Iraq He will ask: “Where was Secretary of State Clinton in all of this?” 
 
 Jeb Bush will blast Hillary Clinton and the Obama administration for their failure to preserve a hard-won peace in Iraq in a policy speech Tuesday night in California. 
 
 Bush, who will speak at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley on Tuesday evening, will argue, as he often does on the campaign trail, that Clinton and Obama are to blame for the spread of ISIL (also known as ISIS and the Islamic State) across Iraq and Syria and for the broader instability in the Middle East. 
 
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 The potent attack against the former secretary of state is shrewd politics: focusing on America’s failure to keep the peace at the end of the Iraq War ignores the war’s beginning — enabling Bush to conveniently shift the blame from his brother, who started the war he now admits was a mistake, to the Democrat he’d likely face should he become the GOP nominee. 
 
 “That premature withdrawal was the fatal error, creating the void that ISIS moved in to fill — and that Iran has exploited to the full as well,” Bush will say, according to excerpts of his speech released Monday night by his campaign. 
 
 “ISIS grew while the United States disengaged from the Middle East and ignored the threat. And 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. 
 
 “In all her record-setting travels, she stopped by Iraq exactly once.” 
 
 After opting not to respond to Clinton two weeks ago when she trashed his record as Florida governor shortly before he appeared on the same stage, Bush is eager to engage the likely Democratic nominee over her tenure as secretary of state during Obama’s first term. 
 
 A June trip to Europe, in which Bush visited two states that border Russia, was set up to allow the Republican presidential hopeful to blast Clinton over her strong support for the Obama administration’s attempted “reset” with Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin. 
 
 The speech Tuesday night offers Bush an opportunity to demonstrate toughness again on the subject of foreign policy, which still ranks high for Republican primary voters — it’s what seemingly dominated the GOP primary until it became dominated by Donald Trump. 
 
 “Who can seriously argue that America and our friends are safer today than in 2009, when the President and Secretary Clinton — the storied ‘team of rivals’ — took office?” Bush plans to say. 
 
 “So eager to be the history-makers, they failed to be the peacemakers. It was a case of blind haste to get out, and to call the tragic consequences somebody else’s problem. Rushing away from danger can be every bit as unwise as rushing into danger, and the costs have been grievous.” 
 
 That line, implying that his brother may have rushed into launching the Iraq War, is a departure from where Bush found himself just three months ago, when his confused answer to a question about whether the war was a mistake and his obvious discomfort in criticizing his brother’s most consequential decision as president temporarily knocked his campaign off course. 
 
 As he did during a weeklong trip to Europe in June, Bush plans to call Tuesday for a U.S. foreign policy based on “restoring” American leadership in the world after the Obama administration’s concerted effort to limit the country’s involvement in conflicts abroad. 
 
 “The threat of global jihad, and of the Islamic State in particular, requires all the strength, unity, and confidence that only American leadership can provide,” Bush will say. “Instead of simply reacting to each new move the terrorists choose to make, we will use every advantage we have — to take the offensive, to keep it, and to prevail. In all of this, the United States must engage with friends and allies, and lead again in that vital region.” 
 
 Bush also plans to emphasize his commitment to restore Pentagon funding to pre-sequestration levels. 
 
 “A winning strategy against the Islamic State, or against any threat to ourselves and our friends, depends ultimately on the military strength that underwrites American influence,” Bush will say. ||||| Photo 
 
 LOS ANGELES — Jeb Bush is planning to issue a full-throttle attack Tuesday night on the Obama administration’s handling of Iraq and terrorism issues, asserting that Hillary Rodham Clinton “stood by” as secretary of state when the situation in Iraq deteriorated, creating the conditions that led to the rise of the Islamic State as the Obama administration reduced its troop level in Iraq. 
 
 In a foreign policy speech Mr. Bush plans to give at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif., he will join other Republicans in attacking the administration’s Middle East policies and lay blame for the state of persistent violence now engulfing Iraq and Syria at Mrs. Clinton’s feet. 
 
 “Where was Secretary of State Clinton in all of this?” Mr. Bush asks, according to excerpts from the speech provided by his campaign. Referring to the rise of the Islamic State, he says: “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.” 
 
 Mr. Bush’s office released excerpts from his remarks in advance — and without the customary embargo preventing them from being published until after the speech is delivered — in what appeared to be an effort to make sure that attention is paid to a campaign that in recent weeks has been overshadowed, most recently at the Republican debate last week. The former governor found himself watching for much of the night as other candidates drew most of the focus. 
 
 That came after Mrs. Clinton surprised Mr. Bush by attacking him on race issues on a shared stage in Florida on July 31. Mr. Bush, the state’s former governor, left her charges unanswered, to the concern of many fellow Republicans worried about his taste for the fight. 
 
 In this case, though, the choice of topic is complicated, given the role of Mr. Bush’s brother, former President George W. Bush, in championing the war in Iraq. In the excerpts, at least, Jeb Bush made no mention of his brother or defense of the decision to intervene in Iraq in the first place. 
 
 The focus on Iraq comes as Mr. Bush has wrestled with how to discuss the unpopular war that came to define his brother’s presidency. In May, he said that he still agreed with the decision to invade Iraq in 2003 — then said that he had misspoken. 
 
 The Democrats’ retort is that it was the 2003 invasion that eventually created the chaos that led to the rise of the Islamic State. 
 
 According to the excerpts from Mr. Bush’s speech, he will assail Mrs. Clinton for only visiting Iraq once as secretary of state and will argue that she and President Obama were so eager to make history that they failed to bring peace to the Middle East. 
 
 “It was a case of blind haste to get out, and to call the tragic consequences somebody else’s problem,” Mr. Bush says in the advance excerpts. “Rushing away from danger can be every bit as unwise as rushing into danger, and the costs have been grievous.” 
 
 The speech suggests a new chapter in Mr. Bush’s attempt to distinguish himself in the Republican field by taking on Mrs. Clinton. In recent weeks, he has increasingly engaged her directly on issues of taxes, education and her email controversy. 
 
 The Clinton campaign did not immediately respond to Mr. Bush’s remarks. On Tuesday, Mrs. Clinton was in New Hampshire, where she had two campaign events planned. 
 
 Adam Nagourney reported from Los Angeles, and Alan Rappeport from Washington. ||||| Two of the leading candidates for president are trolling each other on Twitter. 
 
 In what could be a preview of a potential general-election race, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida repeatedly exchanged shots on Monday, posting images to mock each other with sarcastic tweets. 
 
 Their back-and-forth began when Clinton, the Democratic front-runner, touted her new college-affordability plan: 
 
 Cost won't be a barrier to an education. Debt won't hold you back. Read Hillary's plan: http://t.co/A4pWb3fOf4 pic.twitter.com/KVyr8SlSVn — Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) August 10, 2015 
 
 Bush decided to jump into the conversation by repurposing Clinton's image to argue that President Barack Obama, under whom Clinton once served, had done little to address the college-affordability issue: 
 
 Clinton has gone out of her way recently to attack Bush. And, sure enough, her campaign responded directly to his Twitter broadside. The Clinton campaign took Bush's image, scribbled new text on top of it, and declared that his gubernatorial record had an "F" grade on college affordability in Florida: 
 
 Bush, perhaps hoping to win favor among GOP voters, has similarly embraced an aggressive strategy with Clinton. His campaign responded to Clinton late Monday evening by "fixing" her signature campaign logo to point upward with "TAXES" written repeatedly in the background:
– Hillary Clinton hasn't been shy about calling out Jeb Bush, but Bush has largely held his return fire. It appears that will change in a big way tonight during a Bush foreign policy speech in California, reports Politico. Excerpts released in advance show that Bush intends to talk about the rise of the Islamic State under the Obama administration's watch and ask, "Where was Secretary of State Clinton in all of this?" Among other things, Bush will accuse her and President Obama of bungling the end of the Iraqi war and disengaging too soon. "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," Bush will say. “In all her record-setting travels, she stopped by Iraq exactly once." The New York Times describes it as a "full-throttle attack." Meanwhile, the two candidates were exchanging "Twitter burns" over Clinton's newly unveiled college-debt plan, notes Business Insider.