![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/vindman-300x166.jpg\")
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LTC (ret) Alexander Vindman told a receptive audience at Connecticut College that Trump was to blame for the Russian invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe president was offering a clear signal that personal interests were to be placed above national security interests,\u2019 he said. \u201cAnd there was an opportunity to take care of something that Putin has been wanting to solve for a very very long time, which is deal with a Ukraine that was instrumental in the collapse of the Soviet Union.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Let me get this sorted out… he must mean when the Russians annexed Crimea.\u00a0 Except, that started in early 2014, before Trump was even contemplating running for office. Or maybe he meant when Putin rolled into Ukraine in February 2022, when Trump was a lame-duck President. No, Biden was sworn in January 2021, right? As the President who would do EVERYTHING DIFFERENTLY!! from Trump’s administration.<\/p>\n
\nVindman said Biden\u2019s administration has also made mistakes in its messaging to Russia. He said Biden\u2019s public announcement that there would not be any American boots on the ground in Ukraine further emboldened a president who\u2019d been enabled for more than two decades by global inaction.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo Putin, it was a green light,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Vindman suggested Biden should have employed \u201cstrategic ambiguity\u201d instead. Just because a principal is right doesn\u2019t mean it needs to be stated, he said; it\u2019s better to leave the opponent wondering what the plan is.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
So Trump is at fault because he let the Russians stay in Crimea, which happened long before he was sworn in, or because they rolled into Ukraine over a year AFTER Trump left office and Biden said “we aren’t sending troops”. I see the logic. Well, no, I really don’t. (One of the few intelligent policy decisions Biden has made IMO)<\/p>\n
BONUS ROUND: Vindman was asked if he would run for elected office.<\/p>\n
\nVindman was strategically ambiguous.<\/p>\n
He is now a senior advisor for VoteVets, a Ph.D. student and fellow at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and a board member of the nonprofit Renew Democracy Initiative.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n