Rosie Gray finds Bobby Jindal trying hard not to annoy too many Republicans on foreign policy:

In a roundtable meeting with reporters before appearing onstage, Jindal came down on basically every side possible in Republican foreign policy.

Gray says that he is trying to “to displease as few people as possible,” but for the most part the people that he went out of his way to placate are the hard-liners in the party. That’s nothing new for Jindal. When he has previously tried saying something on the subject, he has made all the predictable noises about American exceptionalism and “leadership.” He even endorsed the silly and dangerous idea of a League of Democracies in his book. His instincts and voting record in Congress have been conventionally hawkish, and his reliance on Jim Talent and John Bolton for advice confirm that he is listening to all the wrong people. Finally, his position on Syria is terrible:

Jindal said he thinks that destroying ISIS shouldn’t mean the United States should be “deterred from our longer term goal of removing Assad.”

So in addition to supporting the current unnecessary war, Jindal is in favor of regime change in Syria that would produce even more instability and violence. He also said that “every option needs to be on the table to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power,” which lines him up with most other would-be 2016 candidates in their willingness to back an attack on Iran. While he claims to reject the idea that the U.S. should be the “world’s policeman,” it is difficult to find any crises where he thinks the U.S. shouldn’t be actively involved.