is the Vindman retirement a good thing or a bad thing?

[mnmoderatedem]

I've been going back and forth on this all afternoon.

On one hand I'm disgusted and furious that it came to this. The bully tactics worked. That a decorated soldier with an impeccable record felt it necessary to call it quits before his time because of relentless trashing from the big orange idiot.

On the other hand, this may become valuable campaign literature during the campaign. The big orange idiot who professes to love our troups so much has been exposed along those lines yet again. The decorated soldier with an impeccable record suddenly became an inconvenience so let loose with the trashing campaign. Fucking phony hypocrite. Maybe there's another clever Lincoln Project ad.

[scarytomcat]

1. sad thing

the military was his life
all he did was his job

[dem4decades]

2. Whenever a man of integrity is punished for it, it is a bad thing.

[2naSalit]

17. This!

[spanone]

3. He told truth to power and was punished....

Bad thing.

[Hoyt]

4. With trump still in office, it's probably good for him. Even Bolton called it "loss for USA."

[johnp3907]

5. Bad

[montanacowboy]

6. President Biden

can reinstate him to a full Colonel (call him back to duty)

[sfstaxprep]

7. I Hope Steve Schmidt Is Right

He says the very 1st thing Biden should do when he takes office, is ask him to come back, and immediately promote him to full Colonel.

[Bev54]

16. I think he should be reinstated as full Colonel and

then he can retire if he likes as a full Colonel and then he should be made the Ambassador to Ukraine which will not only be a finger to Trump but also to Putin.

[Leith]

18. Excellent idea!

He is young enough to start a new career and that sounds like a good one.

[Dan]

8. Absolutely TERRIBLE!!!!!!!

[unblock]

9. every time they force out a decent person, they replace them with scum.

it's hard to blame anyone for wanting to quit or retire when treated horribly, but we need decent people in the government and in the armed forces.

and with donnie in charge, the only way we're getting decent people is if the ones already there stay there because he sure isn't adding any new ones.

[gratuitous]

10. It's definitely bad

And there's nothing that can be done about it while the big baby is throwing tantrums in the Oval Office.

That being said, there's nothing that says we shouldn't use this issue as a cudgel (electorally speaking) to smack Needy Amin around every chance we get.

[SoonerPride]

11. It is a travesty.

more shame heaped upon the Republicans that enable trump's malignancy

[napi21]

12. He had aspirations of higher ranks & realized that DT would stop him at where he was. I feel bad for him

AND for the ARMY! NO politician should interfere with the military like that EVER! He said in his resignation letter that's why he was retiring...he knew he'd never get another promotion. DT will get his...maybe sooner than we think. As of the January 2021 inauguration of a new President, he will be back to just a civilian, an although DT tried to get rid of any AG's who would come after him, there are many more in those offices who will go after him with pride & vengeance.

[csziggy]

13. One good thing is that Vindman will be able to talk about things in the open

While he was serving, he could not talk much about his experiences, other than stuff like his Congressional testimony. Now, he does not have to be discrete other than about classified data.

[KT2000]

14. Bad - bad - bad

He should have gotten his promotion. In fact, someone in Congress should pass a law that his retirement be based on Colonel salary since the day he testified.
More politicians should have stood up for him.

[stopdiggin]

15. I think he defanged an issue

unfortunately. (This preempts the promotion rolls -- and whether he would appear on them. So Espy gets to side-step that one.)

(however -- not sure if I'm comfortable with expecting a man to offer up his personal life and professional career as "bargaining chips" and bullet points for someone's campaign brochures. I wish he would have stayed on -- but I think the man has made all the sacrifices we have any right to ask of him.)

[Captain_New_York]

19. He threw himself on a grenade for the good of the service

He knew that this was tearing at the threads of the army and all the services. The army has a job todo and the plight of one man is not the focus. Yes President Biden should do the right thing