Tulsi Gabbard’s Warnings: Terrorism’s Lasting Echoes

Tulsi Gabbard isn’t one to mince words. Less than two months ago, during her January 2025 Senate confirmation hearing as Donald Trump’s pick for Director of National Intelligence, she flagged a brewing storm: a potential terrorist takeover in Syria. Now, as of March 19, 2025, her words aren’t just ringing true—they’re screaming. Reports confirm Alawite and Christian communities in Syria face violent attacks and killings, with Al Qaeda-linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) tightening its grip post-Assad. Meanwhile, her recent India visit—March 16-18—saw her double down, slamming Bangladesh for minority persecution tied to an “Islamist caliphate” threat. Critics call it fearmongering; data says it’s a wake-up call. This isn’t about one woman’s rhetoric—it’s about a global security fault line that’s cracking wider, with lasting scars. Let’s cut through the noise and unpack the stakes.

Syria’s Collapse: Gabbard’s Prediction Hits Home

Gabbard didn’t pull punches in January. She told senators—per The Washington Post’s December 9, 2024, coverage—that ousting Bashar al-Assad risked handing Syria to extremists. Fast forward to March 19, 2025: Assad’s gone, toppled in December 2024 by HTS, and the fallout’s ugly. The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports over 1,200 civilian deaths since January 1, 2025, with Alawites (10% of Syria’s 17 million population) and Christians (2%) bearing the brunt. HTS, once an Al Qaeda offshoot, now controls 70% of Syrian territory, per Reuters’ March 15 update.

The numbers tell a brutal story. In Idlib alone, 300 Alawite men, women, and children were executed between January and February, according to Human Rights Watch’s March 10 brief. Churches in Aleppo? Torched—15 since December, says Syria’s Christian Observatory. Gabbard’s warning wasn’t a hunch; it leaned on her 2017 Syria trip insights—meeting Assad, seeing the jihadist undercurrent firsthand. She argued U.S. regime-change obsession would backfire. It did. The Economist (March 8) calls it “Syria’s second civil war”—a power vacuum filled by terror, not democracy.

Expert take? Michael O’Hanlon, Brookings Institution senior fellow, told NPR on March 12: “Gabbard saw the sectarian risks others ignored. HTS isn’t moderate—it’s a rebrand with teeth.” Data backs him: HTS’s fighter count jumped from 10,000 in 2024 to 18,000 by March 2025, per the U.S. State Department’s latest terrorism report. This isn’t just Syria’s mess—it’s a regional domino effect waiting to crash.

Bangladesh: Minority Attacks Under the Radar

Gabbard didn’t stop at Syria. On March 17, during her India visit, she told NDTV: “Persecution and killings of minorities in Bangladesh are a concern—tied to Islamic terrorists pushing an Islamist caliphate.” Bangladesh’s interim government under Muhammad Yunus fired back, calling it “misleading” (The Times of India, March 17). But the stats? They’re not on Dhaka’s side.

The Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council logged 1,087 incidents of violence against minorities—mostly Hindus (14% of 170 million)—from August 2024 to February 2025. That’s triple the 362 cases in 2023, per their annual report. Killings? At least 47 confirmed since the interim government took over post-Sheikh Hasina’s ouster in August 2024. ISIS-Bangladesh claimed 12 attacks in 2025 alone, including a February Dhaka bombing killing 19, per Reuters’ March 18 tally.

Gabbard’s not alone here. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) warned in its 2024 report (updated March 1, 2025) of “escalating extremist activity” in Bangladesh, citing 200+ radicalized cells. Analyst Shafqat Munir from the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad told Al Jazeera on March 16: “The interim government’s denial ignores a growing jihadist footprint—Pakistan’s ISI ties don’t help.” Gabbard’s caliphate jab stings because it’s plausible—data shows a 40% rise in madrasa-linked recruitment since 2023, per Bangladesh’s Home Ministry.

India Visits: Intelligence on the Frontline

Gabbard’s March 16-18 India trip wasn’t a vacation. She met National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and PM Narendra Modi, hammering counter-terrorism. Why India? It’s a terrorism hotspot—1,200 attacks since 2014, per the Global Terrorism Database, with Pakistan-sponsored groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba in the mix. Gabbard told ANI on March 17: “Trump and Modi will work to defeat Islamist terrorism—it’s hitting India, Bangladesh, Syria.”

The timing’s no fluke. India’s raised alarms about Bangladesh’s instability spilling over—think 1,000+ illegal border crossings monthly, per India’s Border Security Force (March 2025). Plus, Syria’s chaos fuels global jihadist morale—India’s seen a 15% uptick in online radicalization since December 2024, says the National Investigation Agency. Doval and Gabbard’s talks, per The Times of India (March 16), zeroed in on intelligence-sharing—vital when 60% of South Asia’s terror incidents trace to cross-border networks, per a 2024 Pew Research study.

Bruce Riedel, ex-CIA officer and Brookings scholar, told Foreign Policy on March 18: “Gabbard’s India push signals U.S. priority—South Asia’s a terrorism tinderbox.” Case study: the 2016 Dhaka café attack—20 dead, ISIS fingerprints. India knows it’s next if Bangladesh unravels.

Gabbard’s Intelligence Play: Warnings With Teeth

As DNI, Gabbard’s got 18 U.S. intelligence agencies under her thumb—$90 billion budget, per the 2025 ODNI fiscal report. Her Syria and Bangladesh calls aren’t off-the-cuff—they’re briefed from classified data we’ll never see. Her 2017 Syria trip? Slammed then, prophetic now. She told senators in January (AP News, Jan 30): “My deployments showed me war’s cost and terrorism’s threat.” That’s not rhetoric—her Iraq War vet status gives her edge.

Stats underline her focus. Global terrorism deaths hit 8,352 in 2024, per the Institute for Economics & Peace—up 12% from 2023. Syria and South Asia account for 35%. Gabbard’s pushing Trump’s “peace through strength”—think $10 billion in counter-terror funding proposed for 2026, per the White House. Her critics—100 ex-officials in a March 9 PBS News letter—say she’s soft on dictators. But her HTS and Bangladesh calls show she’s hawkish where it counts.

Minority Attacks: The Human Toll

This isn’t abstract. In Syria, Alawites face “systematic cleansing”—1,500 displaced in Homs since January, per OCHA. Christians? Down to 300,000 from 1.5 million pre-war, says the Syrian Orthodox Church. In Bangladesh, Hindus lost 200 temples since August 2024, per USCIRF. These aren’t numbers—they’re lives shredded by ideology Gabbard’s flagging.

Take Latakia, Syria: HTS executed 50 Alawite farmers in February, per Reuters (March 10). Or Bangladesh’s Jessore district: 30 Hindu homes torched in January, per The Hindu (March 15). The UN’s 2025 Human Rights Report (March 1) warns of “genocidal patterns” if unchecked—echoing Gabbard’s “caliphate” line. Anthropologist Ayesha Siddiqi told The Economist (March 17): “Minority persecution’s a terror tactic—control through fear.”

The Critics: Noise or Substance?

Bangladesh’s Yunus government isn’t buying it. Their March 17 statement (The Tribune) claims Gabbard’s got no evidence—just “damaging stereotypes.” Syria hawks—like Sen. Lindsey Graham (PBS News, Dec 10, 2024)—say she’s too isolationist, citing her 2017 Assad meet. Fair? Maybe. But her forecasts keep landing. The Economist (March 8) notes: “Gabbard’s dissent on Syria was contrarian—now it’s prescient.”

Data cuts through the spin. HTS’s 2025 body count dwarfs Assad’s last years—3,000 vs. 1,200 annually, per the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Bangladesh’s denial? Undercut by a 25% rise in extremist arrests since 2024, per its own police stats. Critics can squawk—Gabbard’s got receipts.

What’s Next: Forecasting the Fallout

This isn’t slowing down. Syria’s HTS could export fighters—think 5,000 jihadists hitting Europe by 2026, per a NATO forecast (March 2025). Bangladesh? If extremism festers, Pew Research projects a 20% GDP hit by 2030—$80 billion—destabilizing 170 million people. India’s on edge—its $3 billion border fence won’t stop ideology, says the Institute for Defence Studies (March 18).

Gabbard’s DNI role means U.S. intel’s pivoting—$2 billion earmarked for South Asia surveillance, per ODNI’s 2025 plan. Trump’s backing her hard—his March 10 Fox News clip vowed: “We’ll crush radical terror.” Expert Peter Bergen told CNN (March 17): “Gabbard’s right—terrorism’s morphing, not fading.” The Global Terrorism Index predicts a 15% attack rise by 2027 if Syria and Bangladesh tip further. Stakes? Millions displaced, billions lost, and a jihadist resurgence no one can afford.

The Big Picture: Security’s New Frontier

Gabbard’s warnings aren’t about one country—they’re about a world where terrorism thrives in chaos. Syria’s 14-year war displaced 13 million (UNHCR, 2025); Bangladesh’s unrest could push 5 million more by 2030, per World Bank models. Intelligence isn’t just spying—it’s seeing patterns. Gabbard’s connecting dots—Assad’s fall, HTS’s rise, Bangladesh’s slide, India’s frontline fight.

This matters because it’s not 2001. Today’s terror isn’t just Al Qaeda—it’s decentralized, tech-savvy, and borderless. The U.S. spent $8 trillion on the War on Terror since 9/11 (Costs of War Project, 2024)—yet here we are. Gabbard’s pushing a reset: focus on threats, not regimes. It’s messy, but the data’s clear—ignore her, and the body count climbs.

So where’s this leave us? Gabbard’s not perfect—her Assad meet still stinks to some—but her calls are landing with chilling accuracy. Syria’s a slaughterhouse; Bangladesh is simmering; India’s bracing. Terrorism’s not a headline—it’s a slow bleed with lasting echoes. Dig into the stats, listen to the ground, and one thing’s obvious: she’s not wrong yet. Stay sharp with OngoingNow.