OPINION: Tulsi Gabbard is a friend of Alaska

It has been interesting to see the objections to the appointment of Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence. These really are the objections of a failed and unaccountable agency that has done serious harm to our nation. If there ever was a need for someone outside the intelligence agencies to hold it accountable, it is now. I will provide specific examples.

But before that, let’s remember that she is a friend of Alaska. In 2020, the Qawalangin Tribe of Unalaska invited the 351st Civil Affairs Command of Hawaii to Unalaska for assistance with infrastructure as an Innovative Readiness Training operation. As part of the team, Lt. Col. Gabbard answered the call and made the trip to Alaska to help. This commitment was near to my heart, since Unalaska was my home town for many years and I was the mayor there from 1986-1991 as we built it into the No. 1 fishing port in the United States.

During her stay here, she met many Alaskans who were impressed with her military experience and her straightforward and down-to-earth approach. Her military career is immense. From 2004-05, she served as an Army specialist in the 29th Infantry Combat Team in Iraq. In 2007 she attended the Alabama Military Officers Academy where she was top of her class and in 2021 was promoted to lieutenant colonel during an assignment in the Horn of Africa. She also was elected to Congress where she was directly involved in the issues of national security and the interface of political forces at work on these issues.

In light of her current nomination as Director of National Intelligence, why does this matter? It matters because beyond showing her brave and immense accomplishments, she saw firsthand the end result of the assessments and operations of the intelligence agencies. And it wasn’t the agents sitting behind a desk, watching from a satellite or drone feed, it was the soldiers on the ground who were giving their lives for their country.

This is why the failures of the intelligence community over the years is so maddening. And I am sure that this motivates Gabbard to ensure they do not continue. The list of failures is overwhelming.

In 1964, the National Security Agency fabricated a report of a Vietnamese attack on the USS Maddox, which led President Lyndon Johnson to escalate a land war in Vietnam with U.S. troops — eventually 500,000 of them. Some 50,000 of our own soldiers were killed, many more crippled and 3 million Vietnamese dead. They were no real threat to us and today they are our ally in the region. For details, please read the Pentagon Papers, released by our Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel.

We also witnessed the false claims of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, causing an armed conflict with many U.S. casualties and costing billions of dollars. The failure to detect the 9/11 terror attacks was more recent. Then the assassination of Moammar Gadhafi, which led to an openly terrorist Libyan state in the region. Then the failure to detect the attack on the Libyan embassy, initially falsely blaming it on a video release. Then the failed withdrawal from Afghanistan and needless killing of U.S. soldiers. Then the improperly issued FISA warrants to spy on members of the Donald Trump campaign.

And perhaps the most egregious was the signing of a letter by 51 former intelligence officials, claiming that the laptop of Hunter Biden was Russian propaganda. This, despite the fact that the FBI had known for two years that the laptop was real.

How many more examples do we need to see that these agencies need serious management from someone who isn’t part of the problem? Whether these failures were due to incompetence or were deliberate actions to manipulate our political leaders and the American public, they need to be addressed before we send any more of our best and brightest men and women off to unnecessary wars where there is no real plan or end game. We have been doing this for the past 30 years and it needs to stop.

Because of her legitimate questions about the Ukraine war, her opponents claim she is a front for Vladimir Putin. This is based on an interview she gave on YouTube when asked about Zelenskyy’s claim that the war was about defending democracy, while demanding $60 billion of U.S. funding. She pointed out that he had called off elections after the end of his term, had jailed a political opponent, had outlawed several opposing political parties, closed down media that was not supportive of him and then started attacking the Russian Orthodox Church. Sound like democracy? This isn’t Russian propaganda, it is the truth, easily verifiable by a simple internet search.

I truly believe that Tulsi Gabbard is the person to straighten all this out. It is sickening to see how her patriotism is being questioned by people who have never looked down the barrel of a gun. She will be a protector of our true national security.

Paul Fuhs was enlisted in U.S. Army military intelligence, MOS 97 Delta, and a Vietnamese linguist during the Vietnam War era, 1969-1971.

The views expressed here are the writer’s and are not necessarily endorsed by the Anchorage Daily News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, email commentary(at)adn.com. Send submissions shorter than 200 words to letters@adn.com or click here to submit via any web browser. Read our full guidelines for letters and commentaries here.