In his address at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday, Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, suggested he was an opponent of American military interventionism, citing the 2003 Iraq War as a conflict that did not need to happen and declaring that "we will send our kids to war only when we must." That speech and similar comments have been cited by some pundits as evidence of Vance making a clean break from the GOP's more hawkish wing.
But these generalized claims, often centered on now-convenient criticism of a war that happened more than 20 years ago — paired with opposition to helping Ukraine fight off an invasion today — are exposed by Vance's repeated calls for aggressive military force, including bombing campaigns targeting Iran and drug cartels in Mexico.
