Ben Carson: ‘I Was Never In Favor Of Going Into Iraq’

Potential Republican 2016 presidential candidate Ben Carson speaks to the media at the Arthur Outlaw Mobile Convention Center in Mobile, Ala., before he was to deliver a speech at a fundraising dinner for the Univers... Potential Republican 2016 presidential candidate Ben Carson speaks to the media at the Arthur Outlaw Mobile Convention Center in Mobile, Ala., before he was to deliver a speech at a fundraising dinner for the University of Mobile, Thursday, April 30, 2015, in Mobile, Ala. Carson is a retired neurosurgeon turned conservative star. (Mike Brantley/AL.com via AP) MAGS OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT MORE LESS
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Republican presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson on Wednesday said that he would not have authorized the invasion of Iraq.

“I’ve said definitively that I was never in favor of going into Iraq,” he told The Hill. “And since we did go in, the big problem is that we didn’t secure victory there, and that’s a huge problem.”

Ben Carson said he would have removed Saddam Hussein from power “some other way.”

“When you go into a situation with so many factions and such a complex history, unless you know what you’re doing or have a long-term strategy, it just creates more problems,” he said.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s (R) struggled last week to answer whether he would have invaded Iraq given what he knows now, which prompted other 2016 hopefuls to weigh in on the Iraq invasion.

Bush initially said he would have authorized the Iraq invasion, but quickly backtracked and said he misheard the question. He finally said that he “would not have gone into Iraq.”

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