Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard believes that war with Iran would be “far more devastating” to the U.S. than the war in Iraq was, saying in an interview with CBS News that President Trump was “pushing us closer and closer to war with Iran.”
Gabbard said that Mr. Trump was wrong to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal, which was negotiated by the Obama administration. She said that while she was pushing for a “stronger” deal, that it was better than no deal.
“I think there are some flaws right now with it. But ultimately, when it came down to it, that nuclear agreement prevented war. And that’s the danger of what the Trump administration is doing right now, pushing us closer and closer to war with Iran by ripping up that deal,” Gabbard said.
Tensions between the U.S. and Iran have escalated in recent months. In June, Iran shot down a U.S. drone. Mr. Trump had approved a strike on Iran, but he said he backed off after learning how many lives could be lost. Instead, the Pentagon went ahead with a cyber attack.
Mr. Trump also signed new sanctions against Iran at the end of June, and the Department of Defense has sent thousands of troops to the region.
“Deploying U.S. troops to the region, they basically set the dynamite fuse and lit it, for another war that will be far more devastating [than what] we saw throughout Iraq, the war that I served in,” said Gabbard, who served in Iraq as a member of the Hawaii National Guard.
Gabbard also said that the U.S. would rejoin the United Nations Human Rights Council if she became president, saying that the U.S. needs to be a “force for good” in the world. Gabbard has been criticized for meeting with Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in 2017, and some consider her an apologist for Assad.
