Jeb Bush, after days of sidestepping persistent questions and criticism, said on May 14 that he would not have launched the Iraq war -- a principle legacy of his brother, former President George W. Bush.
"Knowing what we know now, I would have not engaged. I would not have gone into Iraq," said Bush, a leading contender for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, while campaigning in Arizona.
Most of Bush's rivals for the Republican nomination already have disavowed the Iraq war, though many supported it when Bush ordered the invasion in 2003, claiming Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction that were never found.
More than 4,400 U.S. service personnel died and thousands more were severely wounded in a war that cost at least $1.7 trillion.
"I'm not going to go out of my way to say that my brother did this wrong or my dad this wrong," Bush said. "It's just not going to happen. I have a hard time with that. I love my family a lot."
Based on reporting by AP and Reuters
