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TEMPE, Ariz — After days of sidestepping, Jeb Bush on Thursday offered a definitive answer to the question of whether he would have authorized the invasion of Iraq in 2003 had he known about the intelligence failures at the time.

Knowing what we know now, Mr. Bush said: “I would have not engaged. I would not have gone into Iraq.”

His reply seeks to resolve a controversy — involving judgment and family loyalty — that had hung over him for much of the week, after an interview with Fox News, in which Mr. Bush seemed to suggest he would have authorized the war in Iraq even if he knew of the intelligence failures that preceded it.

Later, he said he had misunderstood the question, and, later still, said he refused to answer such hypothetical questions because they were insensitive to the families of troops who had died in Iraq.

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But the issue kept cropping up. At a town hall-style meeting in Reno, Nev., on Wednesday, an audience member told Mr. Bush, the former Republican governor of Florida, that running for president involves many hypotheticals.

Mr. Bush and his aides clearly felt they could no longer dodge the inquiry, given the high emotions surrounding the 2003 war started by his brother George W. Bush.

On Thursday, Mr. Bush said he would answer the question despite his reservations about the feelings of military families. “It’s very hard for me to say their lives were lost in vain,” he said. “In fact, they weren’t.”

Pressed at a brewery in Tempe whether he had discussed the issue with his brother, the former presidentGeorge W Bush, before deciding to finally answer the question, Mr. Bush said he had not. He said it brought him no pleasure to publicly differ with his sibling.

“I don’t go out of my way to disagree with my brother. I am loyal to him.”

He added: “I don’t think its necessary to go through every place where I disagree with him.”

He seemed to eager to turn the page, saying he hoped the coming presidential campaign is about the future “Not about 2000, not about 1992, not about 1980, but the future.”