[Sense of Events] I mean by that Army Lt. Col. and National Security Council staffer Alexander Vindman is being used as a tool by House Democrats, not that he is trying to do so - although the evidence that he is trying is not absent, see below.
The impeachers are accusing Republicans of attacking Vindman's service and patriotism. Funny thing is, I have not seen any such attacks, I have seen only Democrats' accusations of them. But let's humor them:
Pick the one, single officer whose patriotism is off limits to any possible criticism.
Lt. Col. Alexander VindmanBut back to Vindman. I have some pointed comments about him and his testimony yesterday to Congress. I will only offer my own bio as a founding for what I am writing here.
Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn
Maj. Tulsi Gabbard
Today the AP reports, Colonel testifies he raised concerns about Ukraine, Trump. And in the first paragraph (my boldface):
WASHINGTON (AP) ‐ Defying White House orders, an Army officer serving with President Donald Trump’s National Security Council testified to impeachment investigators Tuesday that he twice raised concerns over the administration’s push to have Ukraine investigate Democrats and Joe Biden.
That alone shatters his credibility with me. Officers do not get a choice of what orders they get to obey. The Supreme Court of the United States wrote in Parker v. Levy, 1974, "An army is not a deliberative body. It is an executive arm. Its law is that of obedience. No question can be left open as to the right of command in the officer, or the duty of obedience in the soldier."
The armed forces' Manual for Court Martial, the instruction of how to implement the statutes of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, states plainly, "the dictates of a person’s conscience, religion, or personal philosophy cannot justify or excuse the disobedience of an otherwise lawful order."
The Manual also puts a soldier's obligation to obey this way: "An order requiring the performance of a military duty or act may be inferred to be lawful and it is disobeyed at the peril of the subordinate."
Yet Vindman disobeyed his order not to appear before Congress simply because he wanted to. His entire credibility is utterly shattered and his willful disobedience reveals him as a partisan hack in uniform.
This officer is being hailed as a hero because he placed country above Trump etc. etc. as required by his oath of commissioning in which swore to "protect and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic." His advocates skip right over the part where he also swore, "I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office upon which I am about to enter...."