By Guy Taylor, Originally Published in The Washington Times, June 23, 2022
Former Vice President Mike Pence sharply criticized what he called the Biden administration’s “weakness” on foreign policy Thursday, slamming the administration’s “disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan” and arguing that White House “appeasement” of Iran is backfiring.
In a speech to a prominent Iranian exile organization that advocates for regime change and had sympathizers in the Trump administration, Mr. Pence offered a glimpse of how his own foreign policy will look if he runs for president in 2024.
“Peace is only possible through strength,” said the former vice president, saying that Mr. Biden has invited instability in the Middle East and beyond as “the adversaries of freedom are sensing weakness in the American administration” and are “emboldened to test our resolve.”
While he emphasized that Russian President Vladimir Putin is responsible — and “must be held to account” — for invading Ukraine, Mr. Pence asserted that unwise foreign policy moves by the Biden administration exacerbated the crisis.
“There is no doubt that going hat-in-hand to the regime in Tehran, reopening the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to Russia, the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan have sent a message that has emboldened those who would use violence to perpetuate their political goals,” he said. “Weakness arouses evil and evil rising in Iran and around the world speaks to the weakness projected by the current American administration.”
Mr. Pence, who broke with President Trump over the fallout from the 2020 election, traveled to Albania to deliver at the headquarters of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran. The Iranian dissident group is also known as Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), which claims to have a wide network of operatives. READ MORE…