Tulsi Gabbard Instagram – “My idea of war changed. The more I learned, the more I knew I wanted to learn more. Both in understanding the human costs and how those decisions really need to be made with the greatest level of care, honoring the sacrifices that our servicemen and women make. Also recognizing, in order to honor those sacrifices, when we go to war, it needs to be in service of the best interest of our country, in service of the safety, security, and freedom of the American people. Not in service of some military industrial complex profit-making venture. Not in the service of going and trying to be the policemen of the world or picking and choosing which dictator we want to overthrow and which country we’re going to try to create a mini-America in. Which, by the way, even with the best of intentions, throughout history, has caused more harm than good for the people in these countries where we go and meddle. When it comes to war, just from my own personal experiences, coupled with a study of history, I’m asking very simple but important questions… What is our objective? What are we trying to accomplish? Can we ensure that objective serves the best interests of the United States and the American people? Unfortunately, again, we have leaders who don’t know history, who are not interested in learning from it, who are not motivated by a desire to truly be of service — and these are the people making decisions about foreign policy, about peace and war, and about our men and women in uniform. We could speak for hours about different examples… Afghanistan. Regime-change in Iraq. Regime-change in Syria. There are so many different examples that you and I and our peers have lived through. And, frankly, our friends who have not lived through these wars. Look at how our policy leaders and even some of our military leaders have devastatingly failed us and failed the country.” — LTC Tulsi Gabbard (Army, OIF Veteran) @tulsigabbard Project No. 62 Podcast No. 52