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a strong military and there are people who wish to do us harm,
so we need to have a strong and ready military to deal with
that," said Gabbard, who is critical of interventionist wars.
"But it's our responsibility that these are missions worthy of
[our soldiers'] sacrifice. Many of these wars have nothing to
do with keeping the American people safe and instead are
counterproductive."
Gabbard's beliefs are grounded in life experience. Wanting
to serve her country after the 9/11 attacks, she enlisted in her
early 20s in the Army National Guard and ultimately served two
deployments in the Middle East. While she worked handling
support and logistics for a medical unit in Iraq, she said she saw
the "first-hand costs of war," not just in terms of lives lost and
bodies and minds injured, but also the incredible amount of
public money spent on waging war that benefited primarily
giant military corporate contractors such as KBR and Hallibur-
ton. She made friends with local workers, known as "third-party
nationals," who were so poorly paid for their services that they
were essentially "glorified slave labor."
Gabbard said she was impressed by the courage, conviction,
and principles National Nurses United showed with its early
endorsement of Sanders, and that admiration was likewise
reflected onto her by our nurse leaders.
"I constantly reflect on, 'Why am I here? Why am I doing
what I'm doing?'" shared Gabbard. "I ran for Congress because
of my two deployments. I'm here to push the envelope and
make people aware."
approach to foreign policy
