Donald Trump’s game plan for Syria is detached from reality, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said during Tuesday evening’s Republican presidential debate in Milwaukee.
“That’s like playing a board game,” Bush said in comments that appeared to get the better of the real estate mogul.
{mosads}“That’s like playing Monopoly. That’s now how the real world works,” Bush said.
Trump has repeatedly said that the U.S. should stand aside and let Russia get bogged down the years-old Syrian civil war. The Kremlin is interested in both propping up Bashar Assad and, Moscow claims, dismantling the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
“If [Russian President Vladimir] Putin wants to go and knock the heck out of ISIS,” Trump said, he should go ahead.
“They’re not doing it,” Bush retorted.
American officials have questioned Putin’s claim that Russia is seeking to target ISIS forces as the country’s attacks also hit more moderate anti-Assad rebels. According to reports, the CIA backed some of the rebels Russia targeted.
“We have no idea who [the rebels] are,” Trump insisted.
Trump faced fire from multiple corners over his foreign policy stance on Tuesday. Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina came to Bush’s aide in the Trump bashing.
“Mr. Trump ought to know that we should not speak to people from a position of weakness,” Fiorina said.
Allies in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and elsewhere “understand ISIS is their fight, but they must see leadership resolve from America,” she claimed.
The U.S. has “the strongest military on the face of the planet,” she said to rising applause, “and everyone has to know it.”