RENO, Nev. — “Your
brother created ISIS,” the young woman told Jeb Bush. And with that, Ivy
Ziedrich, a 19-year-old college student, created the kind of
confrontational moment here on Wednesday morning that presidential
candidates dread.
Mr. Bush, the former
governor of Florida, had just concluded a town-hall-style meeting when
Ms. Ziedrich demanded to be heard. “Governor Bush,” she shouted as
audience members asked him for his autograph. “Would you take a student
question?”
Mr. Bush whirled
around and looked at Ms. Ziedrich, who identified herself as a political
science major and a college Democrat at the University of Nevada.
She had heard Mr. Bush
argue, a few moments before, that America’s retreat from the Middle
East under President Obama had contributed to the growing power of the
Islamic State. She told the former governor that he was wrong, and made
the case that blame lay with the decision by the administration of his
brother George W. Bush to disband the Iraqi Army.
“It was when 30,000
individuals who were part of the Iraqi military were forced out — they
had no employment, they had no income, and they were left with access
to all of the same arms and weapons,” Ms. Ziedrich said.
She added: “Your brother created ISIS.”
Mr. Bush interjected. “All right. Is that a question?”
Ms. Ziedrich was not finished. “You don’t need to be pedantic to me, sir.”
“Pedantic? Wow,” Mr. Bush replied.
Then Ms. Ziedrich
asked: “Why are you saying that ISIS was created by us not having a
presence in the Middle East when it’s pointless wars where we send young
American men to die for the idea of American exceptionalism? Why are
you spouting nationalist rhetoric to get us involved in more wars?”
Mr. Bush replied: “We
respectfully disagree. We have a disagreement. When we left Iraq,
security had been arranged, Al Qaeda had been taken out. There was a
fragile system that could have been brought up to eliminate the
sectarian violence.”
He added: “And we had
an agreement that the president could have signed that would have kept
10,000 troops, less than we have in Korea, could have created the
stability that would have allowed for Iraq to progress. The result was
the opposite occurred. Immediately, that void was filled.”
He concluded: “Look,
you can rewrite history all you want. But the simple fact is that we are
in a much more unstable place because America pulled back.”
Mr. Bush turned away. The conversation was over.
Ivy Ziedrich, College Student, Warms to Role as Jeb Bush Critic on ISIS
Ivy Ziedrich told Jeb Bush, “Your brother created Isis,” and now she finds herself both a target and a hero on social media.
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