Tulsi Gabbard faced an uphill fight to be confirmed as director of national intelligence. Even some conservatives in Congress viewed her with trepidation. But far from reacting in fear, conservatives should hail her confirmation as a chance to reform a national security apparatus that has long ignored direction by the executive branch.
The director of national intelligence is meant to remain bipartisan and focused on external security. Instead, the office has become increasingly involved in domestic political matters and has failed to adapt to the changing international security landscape.
Ms. Gabbard, a U.S. Army Reserve officer and combat veteran, aims to restore the American public’s trust in the intelligence community. She emphasized how important “accurate, unbiased, and timely intelligence is for the President, Congress, and our military to ensure the safety, security, and freedom of the American people.” She also strongly supports the constitutional rights of Americans and will doubtless work to prevent overreach and abuse of power by the intelligence community.
Such concerns prove particularly prevalent in light of the partisan targeting of President Trump and his political allies by members of the intelligence community during the first Trump administration and the Biden administration.
Immediately before the 2020 election, 51 former intelligence officials falsely claimed that Hunter Biden’s laptop and its contents were part of a Russian information operation aimed at influencing the vote in Mr. Trump’s favor.
Of course, we now know they lied. The Hunter Biden laptop story was accurate, and the officials knew it. These officials, not the people behind the Hunter laptop story, were the ones aiming to influence an election through disinformation.
Such dishonest and partisan behavior has alienated many Americans. Ms. Gabbard now has the chance to reform the intelligence community to prevent these abuses. This vital effort deserves the support of American conservatives and congressional Republicans.
Depoliticization isn’t the only reform needed. The intelligence community must also shift focus and expand the resources dedicated to great power competition with China.
During the Cold War, the Central Intelligence Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency employed large numbers of economic analysts to examine the Soviet economy’s strengths and weaknesses, predict Soviet behavior through economic trend analysis, and evaluate the Soviet military’s true size and budget.
Since the end of the Cold War, this sort of strategic analysis in the intelligence community has atrophied. Successive administrations have focused instead on the tactical analysis of counterinsurgency and counterterrorism operations in the Middle East and North Africa.
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Although some amount of tactical analysis is needed to prevent terrorist attacks against the United States, the intelligence community more broadly must reorganize itself to enable and significantly expand its strategic analysis, which, after all, is the reason it exists.
Under Ms. Gabbard, the intelligence community should direct its strategic analysis toward China. To truly understand the scope of China’s challenge and the extent of its military buildup, the intelligence community must do a large-scale, direct-cost analysis of Beijing’s military, accounting for purchasing power parity and hidden costs.
Unclassified reports detailing these findings should be published for the American people so that public debate surrounding Chinese military spending isn’t informed solely by the data that the Chinese government chooses to share.
Ms. Gabbard’s service in the Army and her deployments to combat zones demonstrate her commitment to the national security and well-being of the American people. Mr. Trump’s decision to entrust her with the role of director of national intelligence reflects his understanding of the need for reform and refocusing within the intelligence community.
Ms. Gabbard is well-suited for this job, and conservatives should support her efforts to rebuild trust between the American public and the intelligence community.
This piece originally appeared in The Washington Times
