The Anti-War Candidate: She's not a libertarian, but Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard is shaking up the race for the Democratic nomination.

• Author: Stossel, John

SINCE HER ENTRY into the Democratic presidential primary race, Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard has been running against war. Gabbard, a National Guard major who served twice in the Middle East, launched her campaign by telling CNN, "There is one main issue that is central to the rest, and that is the issue of war and peace."

In June, she used a primary debate to blast President Donald Trump's decision to pull out of America's nuclear arms agreement with Iran, warning that "Donald Trump and his chickenhawk cabinet--Mike Pompeo, John Bolton, and others--are creating a situation where a spark would light a war with Iran." But she also went after her own party's acquiescence to permanent war, asking Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan (who has since exited the race), "Will you tell the parents of those two soldiers that were killed [recently] in Afghanistan that we have to be engaged? That is unacceptable. We have lost so many lives. We have spent so much money."

Gabbard's staunch anti-war stance has led to accusations of disloyalty and even possible foreign allegiances, with 2016 nominee Hillary Clinton musing in October that a Democratic candidate was likely being "groomed" to play spoiler in the 2020 race. That candidate, Clinton warned without explicitly naming Gabbard, "is the favorite of the Russians." Gabbard shot back that she was running for president to "undo Mrs. Clinton's failed legacy." The fight seemed to work to Gabbard's benefit: After polling near the bottom of the field for much of the summer, the Hawaiian's numbers have shot up in the important early primary state of New Hampshire.

In October, Gabbard sat down with Reason's John Stossel to talk about the pitfalls of endless war, the pros and cons of expanding Medicare and government-funded college, and why military spending is every bit as important as health care.

Reason: You often say you know the costs of war. What do you mean?

Tulsi Gabbard: I am a soldier. I have been serving in the Army National Guard now for over 16 years, and I deployed twice to the Middle East. I've served in Congress now for nearly seven years on the Foreign Affairs Committee, the Armed Services Committee, and the Homeland Security Committee. And so from both perspectives, I understand the importance of our national security.

As a soldier, I served in a field medical unit in Iraq in 2005, during the height of the war. Our camp was about 40 miles north of Baghdad, and it was something every day that we all experienced firsthand: the terribly high human cost of war--of our fellow soldiers, friends of ours, who were killed in combat. And the toll that continues now with veterans coming home with visible and invisible wounds, dealing with posttraumatic stress.

You've said the best way to honor our troops is to make combat the last option. We don't do that?

We have to honor our servicemen and women by only sending them on missions that are worthy of their sacrifice. Now, like so many Americans after Al Qaeda attacked us on 9/11, I made the decision to join our military. To enlist, to be able to go after and defeat those who attacked us on that day, to defeat that great evil that visited us.

Unfortunately, since that time, our leaders failed us. Instead of focusing on defeating Al Qaeda, they've instead used that attack on 9/11 to begin to wage a whole series of counterproductive regime-change wars, overthrowing authoritarian dictators in other countries. Wars that've proven to be very costly to our service members, to the American people--

Plus to Saddam Hussein, Moammar Gadhafi.

Hussein, Gadhafi, and the ongoing regime change that's still happening in Syria today.

So in Afghanistan, you would've gotten out when?

Go in, defeat Al Qaeda, get out. That's what should've happened. Instead, what we're seeing now is a very long, protracted, ambiguous mission where no one really knows what "winning" looks like. And the ensuing nation building that's followed in these different wars, that's taken so much of our resources, our taxpayer dollars, out of where they should have been dedicated--in nation building and serving the needs of our people right here at home.

If we just pulled out, wouldn't there be more slaughter?

If we stay focused on what our mission and objectives should be, which is the safety and security of the American people, then we end up saving a whole lot of lives [and] we end up saving a whole lot of taxpayer dollars. The...