Tulsi Gabbard, anti-war activist, is supposed to lead the Intel establishment

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Tulsi Gabbard has questioned the credibility of US intelligence and denounced successive presidents, including Donald Trump, for military interventions.

Now she has been asked by Trump to serve – and lead the US intelligence service.

Like few others in US politics, Gabbard defies easy partisan categorization – a war veteran denouncing war, a Democrat turned Republican, a vegan climate activist denouncing liberal values, and now an establishment skeptic denouncing the leadership of part of this party was sent.

With her prolific media appearances and her clear, genuine speaking style, Gabbard has built a loyal following on the right and left.

In a 2019 Wall Street Journal opinion piece outlining her presidential ambitions, she said she wanted the United States to stop “policing the world, to stop overthrowing governments, the new Cold War and the nuclear war.” To end the arms race and… “We are directing our resources toward urgent needs at home.”

Gabbard rejected the term “isolationist” and condemned both Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Hillary Clinton for, in her view, believing that “the only way to interact with other nations is to bomb them or… to starve out with draconian sanctions.”

Her skepticism has also led to strong criticism of her ruling from more traditional U.S. politicians.

In 2017, she publicly questioned U.S. intelligence, which determined that Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad had used chemical weapons to kill dozens of people. Trump responded with a retaliatory missile attack – and boasted of toughness in contrast to his predecessor Barack Obama, who rejected intervention in Syria despite explicitly warning Assad about a “red line” on the use of chemical weapons.

Gabbard pointed out that US intelligence was wrong about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the stated reason for Bush’s war.

Regarding Syria, she told CNN at the time that she did not want to “blindly follow this escalation of a counterproductive regime change war” when it came to chemical weapons.

She traveled to Syria to meet Assad, whom the U.S. was trying to isolate because of the brutal civil war, and said she wanted to find ways to achieve peace.

Gabbard did not spare Trump from criticism in his last term in office. As he ordered an attack in Baghdad that killed Iran’s Revolutionary Guard commander Qassem Soleimani, Gabbard said Trump had committed an “illegal and unconstitutional act of war.”

Gabbard has direct war experience, having served in Iraq with the Army National Guard in her native Hawaii.

Her father, who was born in American Samoa, continues to serve in the Hawaii State Senate and remains an idiosyncratic Democrat despite prominently speaking out against LGBTQ rights.

Gabbard’s mother, who was born in the mainland United States, embraced Hinduism and raised her children in that tradition.

Gabbard, whose given name Tulsi is a sacred plant in Hinduism, is a lifelong vegetarian and has sworn her oath to join the Bhagavad Gita Congress.

Gabbard married Hawaii-based cameraman Abraham Williams, who met her while filming her campaign ad and proposed to her while surfing in the sunset, in a Hindu ceremony.

Her outspoken support of Hindu nationalist Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has alienated her from some of her left-wing supporters.

However, during her time in Congress, Gabbard took a number of decidedly progressive domestic policy positions, calling for a complete transition away from fossil fuels to save the planet from climate change and advocating for the national legalization of marijuana.

But in 2022, a year after leaving Congress, she announced her departure from the Democratic Party, saying it had morphed into an “elitist cabal of warmongers driven by cowardly vigilance” that was “anti-white Racism” fuels.

Her strident tone led critics to believe she was vying for roles in a future Republican administration. That view was reinforced when she appeared alongside Trump in his final campaign and announced she would become a Republican.

Trump welcomed her, she said, and made Republicans the “party of peace.”