Army LTC Alexander ‘Sweet Cheeks’ Vindman has announced that he is retiring. His pettifogger said that Vindman is retiring, despite Resistance forces in the Army selecting him for promotion to colonel, because OrangeManBad:
Through a campaign of bullying, intimidation, and retaliation, the president of the United States attempted to force LTC Vindman to choose: Between adhering to the law or pleasing a President. Between honoring his oath or protecting his career. Between protecting his promotion or the promotion of his fellow soldiers. LTC Vindman’s patriotism has cost him his career.
Vindman was the prime mover in the farcical impeachment trial of President Trump. He used information available to him through his position on the National Security Council (if you ever have a doubt as to why our policy in Ukraine and other places is so incredibly incoherent, disjointed, and utterly f***ed up, it is because toads like Vindman are the interagency focal point for coordinating policy) which he passed on to a crony who, in turn, collaborated with the Intelligence Community IG to launder rumor of a non-intelligence related nature into a high priority whistleblower complaint that had to go directly to Adam Schiff’s committee.
Read our previous coverage of Vindman here:
Army Recommends Resistance Hero LTC Vindman For Promotion But Will President Trump Go Along
Opinion: General Milley’s Politicization of the Military, Part II
Alexander Vindman Is Not Owed an Apology, He’s Owed an Investigation
McCabe and Vindman: Losing Battles to Win the War (Or ‘The Valentine’s Day Gift’)
There Is Two-Tiered Justice in the Military, Too
Opinion: No, LTC Alexander Vindman Was Not Doing as He Was Trained.
Report: The Army Isn’t Even Bothering to Investigate Alexander Vindman’s (Probably Illegal) Leaking
Opinion: The Rot Is Deep (Part II)
Opinion: The Rot Is Deep (Part I)
Graham Wants to Question Vindman About Political Agenda, Contact With Whistleblower
He was selected for promotion to colonel and the White House indicated that it was not likely to forward a list of nominees to the Senate for confirmation that included Vindman. By the way, this is completely legitimate. Presidents have the right to put their stamp on the officer corps of the armed forces. Obama was not hesitant about forcing officers he deemed to be insufficiently supportive of his policies, foreign and domestic, from service. Thomas Jefferson purged the officer corps of men known to be active in Federalist politics. The services may nominate candidates for promotion but it is the President who makes the final decsion.
Then Tammy Duckworth got involved. She declared that unless Vindman was on the list she intended to hold up the entire slate of officer promotions. As much as I think Duckworth is a loathsome person, she has every right to do that as a Senator and particularly as a member of the Armed Services Committee. In the aftermath of the Tailhook investigation, Navy promotion lists were held hostage to guarantee that no one tainted by the taint of that taintful episode would be promoted. Senator John Warner twice threatened to hold up Navy promotions unless the commander of the USS Cole was stricken from the list.
I suspect the White House made it known that there was no way possible that it was forwarding a list with Vindman on it to the Senate no matter what Duckworth quacked about. Vindman was left with a stark choice, either retire or stand his ground and have about 1,000 fellow lieutenant colonels who had not participated in a coup attempt blame him for their delayed promotion.
No matter how this played out, it is no great loss. Vindman is the kind of officer who endangers the nation. He was driven by politics (I suspect this will become abundantly clear in the coming months) and was a willing participant to what can only be termed a coup attempt. His loyalty obviously lay somewhere besides with the nation and the Constitution and we are much safer with him out of uniform.
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