Gabbard—who has spoken of losing friends while serving in the military—has in the past been extremely outspoken against such incursions. The former lawmaker has long been “focused on not getting ourselves into another horrible war we can’t succeed in or get our way out of,” said Daniel Davis, a senior fellow at the think-tank Defense Priorities, whom Gabbard tapped to serve in a top job at ODNI but whose appointment was axed following an uproar about his past criticism of Israel’s conduct in Gaza.