During the Grand Old Party debate between potential Republican presidential nominees, Jeb Bush said to Donald Trump: “You’re not going to be able to insult your way to the presidency. . . . Leadership is not about attacking people and disparaging people. Leadership is about creating a serious strategy, to deal with the threat of our time.” The threat of our time was of course about ISIL, and although Russia was mentioned several times by the candidates, none of it referred to the effective air campaign Moscow has conducted against the terrorist group. And of course, if Jeb’s father and brother are anything to go by, effective leadership will be lacking on his behalf.
Most disturbingly however was the evident war mongering amongst the candidates. Bush and Ted Cruz opened their statements with guarantees of keeping America safe, with Cruz taking a step further by saying “America is at war.” However, at war with who exactly? The continuous evil culprits amongst the candidates through the debate held in Las Vegas were ISIL, Assad, Iran and of course… Russia.
