Writer: Political motives matter more than what is right

Phyllis N. Goeke

Greenwood

Editor:

Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman was forced to resign from the military.

In years of service to the country, he commanded both infantry and anti-armor platoons in the Korean War, did overseas deployments to both South Korea and Germany, and is a combat veteran of the Iraq War, where he sustained an injury from a roadside bomb and received the Purple Heart. He earned the following awards in addition to the Purple Heart: the Ranger Tab, Combat Infantry Badge, Parachutist Badge, as well as four Army Commendation Medals, and two Defense Meritorious Service Medals.

While serving as director for European Affairs for the U.S. National Security Council, he was called to testify before Congress in relation to the Trump-Ukraine scandal. He honored his oath to defend the Constitution and he told the truth about the president and his administration’s efforts to sell out our Ukrainian allies to Russia. Our president — you know, the one with the bone spurs — was unhappy with the truths the lieutenant colonel told. So steps were taken to ruin his career. It is the country’s loss, for with his future in the military ruined, Lt. Col. Vindman has resigned. Where will we find another so knowledgeable, so devoted and so courageous to serve in that capacity again?

Our president, bone spurs and all, is a small, mean-spirited man who refuses to take responsibility for his misdeeds, and who can be counted on to punish those who speak the truth about him, regardless of the cost to the country.

Lt. Col. Vindman — brave, ethical, responsible man that he is — said that he didn’t fear testifying against one of the most powerful men in the world because, he said, “In America, right matters.”

Apparently it doesn’t matter all that much!