No, Alexander Vindman Was Not Purged

Friday brought the expected news that President Trump has removed Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, one of the House’s key impeachment witnesses, from his post at the national security council. Equally expected was that the reaction was calm, cool, and collected. Not.

Opponents of the president are saying that Vindman was purged for telling the truth and now Trump is exacting revenge on someone he considers to be a personal enemy.

But if Trump really wanted to purge an punish Vindman, he could have insisted he be sent to some remote posting in the middle of nowhere, he could have ordered him to be demoted in rank, or forced him to retire from the Army for insubordination as no doubt many of his supporters would want.

Instead Vindman is being reassigned to the Pentagon (the horror!!!) where he will serve until July at which time he will enroll in the Army War College. Worst. Purge. Ever.

Even if the reassignment is part of Trump’s petty and vindictive nature, nobody seems to be acknowledging that soldiers never hold the same job forever. Vindman’s no different, in fact, he may one day gain stars after his time at the war college.

Vindman hasn’t been kicked out of the service or been stripped of his O-5 rank, but listening to the anti-Trump commentary from opinion makers and supposedly fact-serious journalists you wouldn’t know it.

Consider this tweet from CNN commentator Amanda Carpenter:

Vindman’s job at the NSC was basically to offer advice, but other than that, do what other people told him, which is why so many Trump supporters despise him, he was a little too obsessed with himself and had an over-inflated view of his individual importance to the national security of the country, as evident by rank checking a civilian member of Congress because he was upset some random people on Twitter said mean things about him and with the consensus opinions of the “interagency.”

Nevertheless, if a Democrat where to do what Carpenter wants they would very likely be demoting him because he would then be a graduate of the war college and likely be a full bird colonel.

President Trump lost faith in Vindman and Vindman clearly doesn’t like Trump. Therefore, it’s best for both parties and the country that they move on. President Trump gets a national security he can trust and Vindman, still in the Army, gets to move on with his career.