The sad story of Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander Vindman

So farewell Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander Vindman, a man wronged now being forced to start a new life. As a reminder, Colonel Vindman was the guy who was the Ukraine expert on the White House National Security Council who gave evidence in the impeachment hearings against Donald Trump. He was asked questions by the House impeachment hearings committees about his memory of what the president said on the phone to the new president of Ukraine in that controversial conversation on July 25 2019 in which Trump spoke about his desire to have some dirt on Joe Biden and his son Hunter who was a director of a Ukrainian gas company, and hinting that the promised multi-million military aid to Ukraine would be suspended until the info arrived. Vindman, a straight-up-and-down sort of military guy, dressed in his full smartest uniform with medals attached, answered truthfully what he recalled. It didn't look good for his commander-in-chief. Trump didn't take kindly to his Ukraine expert dishing out the truth in such a formal way and made it clear his job in the National Security Council was finished, kaput! He was duly exited from the White House and sent back to the Pentagon where he has been ever since fulfilling a role with the army. But then he came up for promotion, to full colonel, But Trumpite officials indicated that the president would frown on any move to promote the bloke who had skewered him in the impeachment hearings. Vindman was stuck. No promotion, no future in the army he loved and so now he has announced he will retire and seek another life, presumably well away from anything political. His lawyer delivered a devastating statement on his client's behalf saying Vindman had been bullied and intimidated by the president. Poor Vindman, an honourable man but in the dangerous whirlpool of White House politics he was too honourable for his own good and now he is out of a job. I don't know but it doesn't sound like the head of the US Army or the chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff or Mark Esper, the US defence secretary, fought for him. The only person who did fight for him and his promotion was Senator Tammy Duckworth whom I wrote about in my blog yesterday. She said she would block all military promotions until Vindman had been put back on the list of promotion prospects. It was never going to be enough to save Vindman's career and he must have realised that. So he announced his retirement. Senator Duckworth has said she will continue to block promotions anyway. But Vindman will now vanish into obscurity, just what Trump wanted.