Jeb Bush Says Taking Down Saddam Hussein Was 'Pretty Good Deal'

— -- Today, Republican hopeful Jeb Bush uncharacteristically came out in favor of many of his brother's Iraq policies, offering a rare show of vigorous support.

While speaking in a national security forum in Davenport, Iowa, the younger Bush defended the change he says George W. Bush's policies brought about in Iraq.

"I’ll tell you though, that taking out Saddam Hussein turned out to be a pretty good deal,” Jeb Bush said.

He has publicly disavowed the Iraq war, saying recently that “it was a mistake. I wouldn't have gone in.”

But today, Bush defended elements of strategy that his brother employed, including the troop surge of 2007, saying that it was a “great success” and adding that Iraq was a safer place because of it.

"I've been critical and I think people have every right to be critical of decisions that were made. In 2009, Iraq was fragile but secure. It was -- it’s mission was accomplished in a way that there was security there,” Bush said.

“The decision to dismantle the Iraqi army was a mistake and I think my brother would admit that today," he added. "But, when we got to that point and we saw the chaos, he had the courage to do something that was completely against the political grain."

He also spoke on Guantanamo Bay, and reaffirmed his plan to keep the prison open, saying that it “is not a torture chamber”. He left the door open to resuming the use of enhanced techniques in terror interrogations, refusing to denounce President Obama’s executive order banning such techniques by the CIA.

Bush did say, however, that generally he’s opposed to torture. “I do think in general that torture is not appropriate, not effective and the change of policy that my brother did…was the proper thing to do,” he said.

Bush has long tried to distinguish himself from the family name -- from campaign logos with only his first name, to that comment during the first Republican debate, “In Florida, they called me Jeb.”

Today seemed to be a departure from that strategy.

This is the first time Bush has visited Iowa since his foreign policy speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Museum on Tuesday. Tomorrow, the former Florida governor will encounter lighter fare and forego foreign policy for fried doughnuts at the Iowa State Fair.