When Honolulu City Council member Tulsi Gabbard announced in May that she would run for Hawaii’s 2nd Congressional District seat in 2012, she avoided talking specifically about her policy positions. 

At the time, the Hawaii Army National Guard member told Civil Beat that her two deployments to the Middle East gave her “strong opinions” about foreign policy that she’d share at the appropriate time. 

It appears she was waiting for the 10th anniversary of the war in Afghanistan on Friday. Gabbard issued a video statement urging the ”immediate, safe and orderly withdrawal” of American troops from Afghanistan.

“We cannot afford to be policing and nation building in foreign country at a time when our own nation’s infrastructure is crumbling, our people are in dire need of work and our military is spread far too thin,” Gabbard said.

The White House announced in June that the U.S. will remove 10,000 troops from Afghanistan by the end of the year, and the 33,000 troops approved as part of a December 2009 “surge” will leave Afghanistan by the end of next summer.