Tulsi Gabbard

When it comes to issues of war and peace, no 2020 Democratic presidential campaign is more impassioned or articulate than Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii.

To be sure, other 2020 Democrats are beginning to speak out on war and peace issues. Elizabeth Warren seeks the mantle of JFK, the insider as reformer. Bernie Sanders puts a socialist spin on Republican Dwight Eisenhower who warned about the military-industrial complex. Beto O’Rourke called Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu a “racist.” Pete Buttigieg has stood up for Israel . Kirsten Gillibrand is well-spoken in Mandarin.

Gabbard tops them all, at least in passion and detail. From Iran to Venezuela, the Iraq war veteran is speaking out against Trump’s foreign policy and its policies of “regime change,” that is, the U.S. policy of seeking to overthrow foreign governments that it does not like.

Gabbard served as a medic in the aftermath of the disastrous “regime change” war in Iraq. As commander in chief, she would not fight another one.

In her tweets, Gabbard uses her critique of “regime change” policies to bolster and explain her positions on domestic issues like energy, immigration, and infrastructure. Ending regime change wars, she says, will yield “a peace dividend.”

Venezuela

No candidate has said more about Venezuela than Gabbard.

She calls Trump/Bolton intervention in Venezuela intervention a bid to control oil. “Regime change,” she says, is corrupt.

Infrastructure

“Regime change” wars, she goes on, are wasteful.

She does not spare fellow Democrats, like Joe Biden, who have supported wars of choice in the 21st century.

The Border

She links U.S. military intervention in Central America in the 1980s to the flow of immigrants fleeing those countries today.

‘Peace Dividend’