2016 Vice Presidential prospects: on War & Peace

Mike Pence: Supported Iraq war and sending more US troops there in 2007

Mike Pence: Military action to crush ISIS

"This is a military enemy," he said of the Islamic State. "What happened in Orlando, what just happened in Nice--these are terrorist attacks that are inspired by a military organization. We have to recognize that we are in a struggle."

In his first major interview since Trump's announcement on who would get the No. 2 slot, Pence said that "we have to recognize and speak plainly about the impact and the influence of radical Islam. But let's focus on the enemy. The enemy is ISIS. We know where they are. It's a metastasized version of Islam that is radical Islam that's being used as a justification for simply a power grab in the region," the governor said. "That's what this caliphate is."

Tim Kaine: Iran is the real threat; Israel can make peace with Arabs

Kaine said that in previous trips to Israel, he often came away frustrated with the prospect of Israelis and their Arab neighbors living in peace. "When you talk with senior leadership, you tend to hear the same thing over & over again.

Tim Kaine: Iran is the real threat; Israel can make peace with Arabs

Kaine said that in previous trips to Israel, he often came away frustrated with the prospect of Israelis and their Arab neighbors living in peace. "When you talk with senior leadership, you tend to hear the same thing over & over again. There is kind of a staleness to the conversation frankly," he said. Often, one side just wants to blame the other, Kaine noted. During his trip, he was encouraged to realize that "some countries really view Israel as a partner," he said. "There is growing cooperation between Israel and many Arab nations in the region, the Gulf state nations," specifically Saudi Arabia, as well as Jordan & Egypt. Many of the Arab leaders he spoke with pointed to Iran as a real threat to them, not Israel, he said.

Tim Kaine: Afghanistan war was not a war of Obama's choosing

TIM KAINE, DNC CHAIRMAN: Those comments were outrageous to say that the Afghanistan war was a war of Obama's choosing, ignores 9/11, ignores President Bush going to a bipartisan Congress and getting their support for going after the terrorists who did us harm, ignores the international coalition that joins with us. But in another way, as outrageous the statements are, they are also, I think, a logical extensions of what the Republican Party's game plan is which was blame the president for anything and oppose him on everything.

Tim Kaine: Iraq was a wrong choice; Afghanistan was no choice

KAINE: You look at Afghanistan much like you look at what the president has done in Iraq. The wars were for very different motives. I think the president was right that Iraq was a wrong choice and I applaud the way he has brought the troop strength down. He has laid out a plan going forward that calls for a reduction of battle troop strength in Afghanistan beginning in 2011. He has accomplished what he said would do in Iraq and I think the American people are going to see that he will accomplish what he said he would do in Afghanistan. [To say] that the Afghanistan war was a war of Obama's choosing ignores 9/11

Tom Vilsack: Congress should stop funding U.S. fighting in Iraq

Vilsack's comments made him the first major presidential candidate to urge Congress to use its spending power under the Constitution to bring U.S. fighting in Iraq to an end. "Congress has the constitutional responsibility and a moral duty to cut off funding for the status quo," said Vilsack. "Not a cap--an end. Not eventually--immediately."

The former governor still supports keeping a U.S. troop presence in the northern Kurdish part of the country in an effort to dissuade Iran from moving into any power vacuum created by the end of U.S. military engagement in central Iraq.