Someday, when this is all over, and when everybody is pretending that this administration* never happened, there is going to be a roll of honor for people who stood for the republic, many of them career public servants risking their careers and their financial security—lawyers cost money—and we don't even know all of their names now. We know some of them: Marie Yovanovitch and Fiona Hill and Bill Taylor. And now we know another one, and his name is Alexander Vindman, and he is a lieutenant colonel in the United States Army.

On Tuesday, Vindman, the Ukraine expert from the National Security Council, is expected to tell the congressional committees inquiring into the possibility of impeaching the president* that he had listened to the now-infamous phone call between the President* of the United States and the President of Ukraine. According to a copy of a draft of Vindman's opening statement to the committees obtained on Monday by The New York Times, the phone call touched off every alarm bell Vindman has.



“I did not think it was proper to demand that a foreign government investigate a U.S. citizen, and I was worried about the implications for the U.S. government’s support of Ukraine. I realized that if Ukraine pursued an investigation into the Bidens and Burisma it would likely be interpreted as a partisan play which would undoubtedly result in Ukraine losing the bipartisan support it has thus far maintained.”



Vindman denies that he is the still-anonymous whistleblower, but, according to his statement, he did kick his concerns up the food chain with considerable vigor.



“I did convey certain concerns internally to national security officials in accordance with my decades of experience and training, sense of duty, and obligation to operate within the chain of command.”



On two occasions, the colonel brought his concerns to John A. Eisenberg, the top lawyer at the National Security Council. The first came on July 10. That day, senior American officials met with senior Ukrainian officials at the White House, in a stormy meeting in which Mr. Bolton is said to have had a tense exchange with Mr. Sondland after the ambassador raised the matter of investigations he wanted Ukraine to undertake. That meeting has been described in previous testimony in the impeachment inquiry. At a debriefing later that day attended by the colonel, Mr. Sondland again urged Ukrainian officials to help with investigations into Mr. Trump’s political rivals.



Sondland, who is not one of those honorable people referred to above, is up to his knees in the Great Grimpen Mire right now, and he's sinking fast and the hound is baying in the distance. He has become a tool of no further use, which is the worst thing to be in relation to this particular administration*.

Gordon Sondland is not on the list of honorable people. Mark Wilson Getty Images

Vindland, on the other hand, is a witness of great significance. He is the first person from inside the White House to testify in support of what the whistleblower revealed last month. He is a career soldier and the son of refugees from Ukraine when it was still part of the old Soviet Union.



My family fled the Soviet Union when I was three and a half years old. Upon arriving in New York City in 1979, my father worked multiple jobs to support us, all the while learning English at night. He stressed to us the importance of fully integrating into our adopted country . For many years, life was quite difficult.In spite of our challenging beginnings, my family worked to build its own American dream. I have a deep appreciation for American values and ideals and the power of freedom. I am a patriot, and it is my sacred duty and honor to advance and defend OUR country, irrespective of party or politics.



That is how you say what Alexander Vindman comes to say to the Congress on Tuesday. He makes sure to note one more thing in striking a blow against this threat to the republic he swore to preserve and protect.



I sit here, as a Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Army, an immigrant.



Hammer. Nail. Coffin.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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