Jeb Bush the rightful heir on foreign policy to Ronald Reagan? Absurd, according to the one of the nation’s foremost Reagan experts.

Craig Shirley, author of three biographies on the 40th president, appeared Thursday on “The Laura Ingraham Show” to rebut recent comments by former George W. Bush aide Nicolle Wallace that Bush is the candidate most like Reagan in the current GOP field.

[lz_radio_ad]

“Jeb is the rightful occupier of that Reaganist, Reaganism in foreign policy,” Wallace said on MSNBC. “And whether he prevails or not will say more about the Party than Jeb Bush. But Jeb Bush has done the work. He understands the world in a nuanced manner. Unfortunately for Jeb Bush, we are not having a nuanced debate about foreign policy at this point in the campaign.”

Shirley said Wallace’s argument that Bush is the most Reaganesque candidate is flawed.

“She didn’t say how he’s like Reagan,” he said. “And I defy her to compare Jeb Bush’s experience in foreign policy with Reagan’s.”

Shirley said that with the exception of generals, no president enters the job with the requisite level of foreign policy experience. Presidents learn on the job. Where Reagan differed from the Bushes, he said, was in the approach he took to foreign policy. “They can say it all they want, but common sense and a cursory study of history proves anything but,” he said. “And they’re just making fools out of themselves by trying to compare themselves to Reagan.”

[lz_related_box id=”105440″]

Reagan was more judicious about the use of the military than people may realize, Shirley said. He noted that Reagan only committed U.S. forces to the Middle East once, when he deployed the Marines to Beirut, Lebanon. The ensuing terrorist attack in 1983 that killed 307 people, including 241 U.S. servicemen, led Reagan to consider it one of the great mistakes of his presidency, Shirley said.

George W. Bush, meanwhile, launched two Middle East wars that came to be repudiated by the American people. “There’s no comparison at all,” Shirley said. “First at all, the Middle East was never really on Reagan’s mind. His mind was on the Soviet Union and the inherent threat of Soviet hegemony throughout the world. So that is where his mind was at.”

Who do you think would win the Presidency?

By completing the poll, you agree to receive emails from LifeZette, occasional offers from our partners and that you've read and agree to our privacy policy and legal statement.

Shirley said Reagan sought to avoid quagmires like Iraq and Afghanistan. “He was also a student of history, and he knew that occupying armies fomented revolution, and it was better to work with indigenous forces,” he said.