Pence, 57, a lawyer and a former talk radio host, was not deeply involved in military affairs during his 12 years in Congress. | AP Photo Pence could undermine key Trump war argument

A year ago, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence suggested in a major speech that 2016 “could actually be the first foreign policy national election since 1980.”

Now emerging as Donald Trump’s likely vice presidential pick, the Republican governor could end up undermining one of Trump’s key foreign policy arguments against Democratic rival Hillary Clinton — her vote as a senator in 2002 for the Iraq War.


Just like Clinton, Pence, who represented a swath of eastern Indiana in the U.S. House from 2001 to 2013, voted for the 2002 resolution to authorize George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq, now widely considered a major blunder that destabilized the region and required a huge commitment of U.S. blood and treasure.

As a congressman, Pence was a leading supporter of the war, continuing to staunchly defend it even after things went south. And some of his past statements on Iraq amount to pretty much the opposite of the views Trump is now pushing.

In 2008, he included an entire page on his congressional website devoted to defending the war, calling the capture of Saddam Hussein “a victory of incalculable value to the security and freedom of the Iraqi people.”

“By ignoring President Bush’s ultimatum to leave Iraq, Saddam Hussein exhausted his final opportunity to avoid removal by force,” said Pence’s website, which has since been taken down. “Military engagement became necessary to prevent Hussein from threatening the United States and its allies.”

Earlier this month, though, Trump lamented the death of the former Iraqi leader, saying that while he was a “really bad guy,” Hussein did manage to keep Iraq secure from the terrorist groups that have since taken control of wide swaths of territory.

“He killed terrorists,” Trump said of the late dictator at a rally in North Carolina. “He did that so good. They didn't read them the rights. They didn't talk. They were terrorists. Over.”

“Today,” Trump added, “Iraq is Harvard for terrorism."

Trump has maintained on the campaign trail that he opposed the Iraq War from the start — an attack line that was effective against Jeb Bush and that he's now using against Clinton, despite the fact that it has since come to light that Trump said in 2002 that he supported the invasion, as FactCheck.org and other sites have pointed out.

Trump’s likely pick of Pence as his running mate could make this attack line even more difficult to sustain.

Pence, 57, a lawyer and a former talk radio host, was not deeply involved in military affairs during his 12 years in Congress. He's not a veteran and didn't serve on the House Armed Services Committee. He was a member of the House Foreign Relations Committee and did travel to Iraq and Afghanistan, among other places.

In one highly publicized incident, he was part of a 2007 congressional delegation led by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) to an Iraqi market. Members of Congress declared the market was safe and evidence of an improved security situation in Iraq, with Pence saying it was "like a normal outdoor market in Indiana in the summertime."

But they were widely mocked after The New York Times reported on the extraordinary security measures in place for the lawmakers' visit, including more than 100 soldiers, sharpshooters on rooftops and attack helicopters overhead.

Pence’s disagreements with Trump on defense issues go beyond the Iraq War. In a speech last year to the Conservative Political Action Conference, Pence laid out a hawkish foreign policy vision that offers a stark contrast to Trump’s more isolationist views.

Pence then decried Russia’s increasingly aggressive behavior, saying a “new Iron Curtain is descending down the spine of Europe.” And he said the Pentagon budget should be "dramatically" increased.

The governor also called for reviving two weapons programs that have become emblems for the kind of military waste Trump has said should be cut.

The Army’s Future Combat Systems and the Air Force’s F-22 fighter jet were both scuttled early in the Obama administration. The F-22 was canceled after just 195 jets had rolled off the assembly line, far below the 750 the Air Force had originally planned to buy.

Then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ decision to scrap the F-22 was in part the result of major cost overruns.

Restarting the production line, according to a Congressional Research Service report, could cost hundreds of millions of dollars.