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Alexander Vindman

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2021-09-02

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2021-09-02

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1. “Has allowed me to make the kinds of decisions I have to recognize that it's not about preserving my own skin, preserving my career. It's about providing a better future for my daughter, being able to look her in the eyes and not have to equivocate on actions I've taken. I guess that's one of the overarching lessons is that we need to sometimes take a step back from what's right in front of us and have a little bit of a broader perspective.”

   2021-09-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 458 — Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

2. “For me, it informed a couple of different things. It informed my willingness to take personal risks, to keep this country different, to make this a place where right matters. It also informed me to maintain a level of positivity that I think is hard to come by nowadays in the United States. The fact that this country is unique, the country is different. The people in this country are amazing, wonderful people by and large with the current focal point being on the divisive voices. So being blessed by perspective as Has”

   2021-09-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 458 — Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

3. “You know, it's interesting. I think I've been blessed by perspective in certain regards. It's the perspective of what's important. It's the perspective of the fact that there were bigger challenges that I faced that included losing a daughter, that included living in an authoritarian regime as a U.S. diplomat and hearing about my family's history for my dad before I was born. I had that perspective. I had the perspective of serving in Iraq. I had the perspective of living in South Korea and understanding how just a few kilometers away, life was very, very different.”

   2021-09-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 458 — Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

4. “The whole idea is basically being able to navigate a very, very challenging series of events in the best way possible, doing the right thing in the right way, not being a leaker, leveraging proper channels in the right way, all those skills that I accumulated over 20 years coming together to really deal with an unprecedented challenge. And on the back end, like I'm doing now living with the consequences. I could live with the consequences. I mean, am I happy about how things unfolded? No. There were a lot of personal challenges, there were a lot of challenges to family. But I could end up on the back end. I'm working on a doctor at Johns Hopkins. I'm at a think tank. I'm consulting. I wrote a number two bestseller. Should be number one because we know the number one book was a work of fiction, Mark Levin's American Marxism. But, you know.”

   2021-09-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 458 — Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

5. “So, you know, it's interesting, the title of the book Here Where it Matters is actually, it's hopeful and it should be hopeful to people that read it. I mean, I think that's the way I wrote it.”

   2021-09-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 458 — Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

6. “On the military leadership is that there is probably going to be some sort of, I certainly hope and will advocate for a reckoning and an assessment of the lessons learned. The lessons learned from their failure to adhere to values in terms of protecting one soldier or successfully navigating wars or being paraded in front of Lafayette Park after protests were suppressed. I mean, all these things were hallmarks of a political, military that was looking to avoid fallout on senior leadership and sacrificing”

   2021-09-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 458 — Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

7. “Well, I mean, you know, I had developed close relationships and I would have expected at least some of my former seniors to reach out and say, hey, you did the right thing. I mean, everybody just kept their head down. I think to me what was shocking is that there's a difference between the institution and institutional values and the leadership that actually doesn't in a lot of ways exemplify those values. And I think that's kind of borne out in cost with regards to Afghanistan and the fact that you had seniors for the past 20 years talk about how the country was improving and insisting that we continue to maintain our mission. But it was at odds with the facts and if it served any interest, frankly, it served their own personal interest of having a successful tenure in their position. That's the part that my own views”

   2021-09-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 458 — Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

8. “So, with regards to his acquittal, it was not a surprise. I'd still kind of had this ideological idealistic hope that the Senate would do the right thing. But they didn't abrogated their responsibility. As per pattern where the party and the executive branch has never been voted out of voted against in these types of events. So there was little no chance. But the consequence of that was a mismanagement of COVID. So the president was emboldened going to COVID. Economic catastrophe mismanaged. And then attempted stolen election in which on a second impeachment, again, the Senate failed to hold him accountable. So to me, the responsibility doesn't just fall on the president as a bad actor. It falls on the Senate failing to do their job, what we pay for. With regards to”

   2021-09-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 458 — Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

9. “Been talk about real estate. There potentially can be ties. I'm not privy to that. Based on who President Trump was, it's quite possible. But what I think is, to me, is telling is that the Russians wouldn't manage him as a winning asset. They just wouldn't do that because the potential for the president to kind of spout off at some point saying, oh, I'm only doing this because the Russians have me blackmailed would be something that would be an enormous risk and blow up right in their face. So the reason I describe him as a useful idiot is that they didn't even have to really work that hard. They didn't have to pay him off. They didn't have to entice him with other things. All they had to do was pander to his ego, you know, pander to his vanity and tell him how good looking he was, how competent he was, how everybody's against. And that's how they got him to do what he needed to. And that's why it's a...”

   2021-09-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 458 — Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

10. “And then the insurrection, of course, he was willing to go as far as to propel an insurrection, violence on the streets to retain power.”

    2021-09-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 458 — Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

11. “When he was in power, but he was injecting that just so like this, he could try to steal it when he didn't have the requisite.”

    2021-09-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 458 — Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

12. “I certainly recognize that this was a vindictive administration and that there would be a significant risk to my being able to continue on at the White House. But I don't know if I fully kind of understood because I was doing it behind closed doors in official channels that I was going to kind of completely imperil my military career. That's something that I didn't quite realize. One point to the Russian tradecraft. The Russians, if you recall in 2014 with regards to Ukraine, they injected this idea of illegitimate government. They did it months before the Ukrainians conducted their elections. This is the same thing that the president had done as early as the middle of 2020, even before, claiming that the election is going to be stolen. I don't know how that works because he was in power. He was the executive branch, you know, how the Democrats were going to steal.”

    2021-09-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 458 — Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

13. “Yes, this is a well established doctrine. A lot of it actually originating from the Soviet Union that the Russians continued to hone and implement. I mean, one of the examples is this idea of casting a DAO over the fact that there is an absolute truth, that there are facts, and that based on facts, you could draw kind of legitimate conclusions. The Russians have been masterful at undermining truth narratives. We've seen it play out historically with regards to, for instance, age originated. They claimed that it was developed at a US lab. We've seen it play out. And it's interesting that our own political leadership from the right at the moment, I don't see this being an issue from the left, but from the right has latched onto these things and has basically adopted an authoritarian toolkit.”

    2021-09-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 458 — Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

14. “But Mick Mulvaney was helping orchestrate this White House meeting in exchange for an investigation into the Biden's drug deal. And the only thing that was missing and maybe my reverence for the office of the president was I was unwilling to accept it until I heard it with my own ears. It was the president that was that was demanding this investigation into the Bidens because he rightly frankly rightly assessed that Joe Biden would be his biggest adversary and would ultimately defeat him. He was looking for any advantage he could going into the 2020 elections and that's what he settled on is a way to steal the elections upend free and fair elections.”

    2021-09-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 458 — Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

15. “As you pointed out very well, that this is unfolded over the course of months. And really, the only thing that was missing by the 25th was whether the president was directly involved. I had heard, I had received reports that the president was involved. Certainly Mick Mulvaney was a driving force. He was one of your...”

    2021-09-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 458 — Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

16. “I think there may have been a moment like that. I think certainly Fiona, Dr. Fiona Hill Coming back from that meeting, she asked me to pick up Ukraine also. And it's because I think she realized that there wasn't going to be as much as we would want to do to push back on Russian aggression. Russians interference in US domestic affairs. And I had talked through this idea of if we couldn't do it with regards to our bilateral relationship with Russia, we could do it by hardening the countries around Russia's periphery. And I was happy to pick up Ukraine, which that was a fateful step, I guess, putting me on a collision course with history and Trump and his machinations.”

    2021-09-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 458 — Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

17. “So that was my first day on the job. I mean, in a way, I wish that Fiona had joked about this. I wish that she had pretended a fainting spell to interrupt that press conference that she had joked on a couple of occasions. It was my first day on the job. I was just stepping in, doing all that kind of improcessing things that you do, getting your badges and all that kind of stuff. And I stepped out of all these indoctrination meetings to listen to this press conference because it was important. And then the rest of the day was upended. And I think I had a pretty darn good understanding that, you know, as much doubt as I had about being able to sufficiently advise this administration, it was going to be even more an uphill battle.”

    2021-09-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 458 — Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

18. “And that's really frankly why I went in there. I mean, I went in there recognizing that it would be perilous. I also, somewhere in the back of my mind, knew that there would be certain lines that would cross. But as long as the orders were lawful, I would have to obey them, providing the very best advice I could offer to the National Security Council, to the White House on what we should be doing with Russia.”

    2021-09-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 458 — Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

19. “Did I went through, I would say, an exhaustive amount of deliberation, including talking to folks in the White House on McMaster's, the National Security Advisor, H.R. McMaster's team, about what I would be stepping into. But I also recognized maybe I was the best position to have a positive influence on U.S. national security and foreign policy with regards to Ukraine. Since I was the one that had authored these documents, understood what the Russians were doing, understood how they were operating in Ukraine, I thought that it would be a disservice to not Contribute my capabilities and knowledge to help navigate an administration that didn't necessarily have the understanding of the Russian threat.”

    2021-09-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 458 — Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

20. “It was about as high as you can get, I guess. I didn't have, let's say, all the access I had at the White House, which was everything. But I had quite a bit. And I had a very good idea of what the Russians were doing in the United States.”

    2021-09-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 458 — Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

21. “Implement hybrid warfare, watching convoys cross the border into Ukraine and reporting on those as an attach ⁇. And having that firsthand experience being asked to join the Pentagon and the chairman of the joint chief staff as his Russian affairs officer, there I drafted the most critical documents pivoting us away from the global war on terror to nation-state competition. So I drafted the National Military Strategy Russia Annex and the Global Campaign Plan for Russia and then came to the attention of the White House that wanted to better manage our adversarial relationship with Russia. And it was almost kind of a straight line from foreign area officer through these developmental positions to Russia to the Pentagon to the White House.”

    2021-09-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 458 — Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

22. “So, first of all, I mean, I had a very amazing military career both as an infantryman serving in some of the best military formations under the best military leaders. And then as a foreign area officer, I had a pretty much an unprecedented run. I went to Harvard for graduate school. Not only did I already have Russian in my background, some of it self-taught, some of it perfected at Harvard. I also picked up Ukrainian, which is one of the reasons I ended up in my position at the NSC. And then my first assignment out the gate was to Russia for two years. I extended for three years. This is during a time where the relationship was in the beginning relatively normal. I mean, there's nothing normal about a relationship with Russia, but it was kind of a bilateral relationship. And then it went to a complete kind of basket case as the Russians invaded Ukraine. And I was on the ground watching the Russians.”

    2021-09-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 458 — Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

23. “Punctured through our armored vehicle was designed, engineered by the Iranians. So there was already kind of like a little regional political understanding. And that's not something that as a young captain that you necessarily think of what's occurring at the operational strategic level. So I started to kind of expand my aperture on other things that were important. And it was a foundation in a lot of ways for becoming a foreign area officer in the Army and studying, understanding all of the inputs to foreign policy and national security.”

    2021-09-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 458 — Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

24. “I think fundamentally, I guess there were probably two things. One is that I'm tradable. You know, some people, especially in my earlier years, would have think that I'm not trainable. I'm incorrible. But I was able to learn my craft and respond in a cool calm, collected manner under fire. So that was the first thing. And that's always a question in your mind when you're in that kind of situation. How do you respond? And I was happy that I responded the way I would have liked to. So that's something. The other thing I learned is maybe a deeper sense of how the regional, how national, how kind of broader issues impacted on just even a tactical situation. The improvised explosive device that”

    2021-09-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 458 — Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

25. “David, I just want to say something. There's something DC phenomenon that ex officials, no matter from what administration, because of the title that they held, are somehow kind of still imagined as competent, as warranting those positions. That to me doesn't make sense. And part of this is a media establishment that wants to get somebody on to be able to provide commentary and invites these folks on. These people should not be considered serious national security experts in any way, shape or form. So, I mean, that's just a little kvetch, I guess.”

    2021-09-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 458 — Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

26. “You know, it's interesting O'Brien is not a credible figure just I'll tell you that your NSAs typically are very skilled experienced individuals Bolton, whether you like them or not, had a wealth of government experience, who was a hawk, but he knew his craft, he knew how to function. O'Brien's claim to fame was that he freed ASAP Rocky from the Swedes. That's how he got that job. I mean, he had no business in that role. He was not competent. And frankly, he was a marginal actor. He was there as kind of a placeholder because you needed somebody in that seat. But what it did was basically empowered Secretary Pompeo to a lot of ways ride roughshod over the rest of the national security apparatus as it ran out of the White House. So it's hard for me to take anything that O'Brien says seriously.”

    2021-09-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 458 — Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

27. “Well, there's a way to rationalize some of these things, frankly, from a national security foreign policy perspective. If you recall, there was a march towards conflict with North Korea. If this was done properly, you could ease up on the potential for outright military conflict. So that could be rationalized. But what you can't necessarily rationalize is the fact that the president sacrificed making progress on denuclearizing Crimea, basically mortgaging a security, the Korean peninsula for what amounted to a photo op. So if he had done this successfully, he could have traded engagement with North Korea for something tangible, but he didn't.”

    2021-09-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 458 — Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

28. “Even though the defense apparatus, the national security apparatus was trying to implement his strategy, but it's the president's own involvement that tended to upend the successful conclusion of these enterprises. Just couldn't manage”

    2021-09-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 458 — Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

29. “To authoritarian leaders, and then the third component, which is not negligible, is that he wishes he was like them. He wishes he had that kind of power. He wishes he had that kind of authority. He wishes that he had that kind of, he could command that kind of respect. And he couldn't. I mean, he was his own worst enemy. Half measures with regards to his engagement with South Korea. Same thing with regards to Russia, with regards to the Chinese relationship. Trying to push back on Chinese economic coercion and all of the things that we've experienced with regards to China intellectual property theft. The militarization of South China, East China Seas, all these things, he wasn't able to effectively manage.”

    2021-09-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 458 — Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

30. “There are two tendencies that I've distilled for Trump. One is to poke, is to basically kind of like irritate, to troll. He loves to do that. If somebody says no, he's going to do the opposite or if somebody says that's not a good thing to do, he's going to do the opposite. The other thing is an overarching desire for self-service. And whether that's in that case being a peacemaker so he could be get a Nobel or something of that nature or with regards to even his romance with Vladimir Putin, part of that is to dispel any notions of unfair 2016 elections that the Russians, all of these things, I mean, there was a underlying logic to a lot of his actions with regards to”

    2021-09-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 458 — Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

31. “Who's counting? That's right. Y And then from there, you know, giving myself a foundation to enter military service and then start the project of improving myself, building the good habits, becoming more disciplined, and building on probably what was already a pretty strong kind of ethical foundation, if not all the best character traits, all those things slowly coming together through public service. And that's why I'm such a huge advocate for public services, that for me public service was kind of a lifesaver. Maybe that's a little bit of an overstatement, but I could have, I benefited immensely. All those things that allowed me to get to the White House and serve this country originated with public service and military service. So I'm grateful for that.”

    2021-09-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 458 — Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

32. “We were both, my twin brother and I were both kind of late bloomers. And maybe what we didn't have is we in a lot of ways had it a lot easier than my father growing up. And we didn't have to really quite understand the consequences of our actions, I would say, simply put. Because of that, we didn't realize that being non-studious, being unfocused was going to have some baggage along with it. In my case, that ended up, you know, I was suspended from American University. I took a semester off. And then I had a chance to reflect on, okay, what can I actually do? Can I achieve any of my goals if I continue on this way? And with that bit of introspection, I realized I couldn't. And I went back to State University of New York at Binghamton and frankly finished up with a better GPA than all the rest of my brothers. Which is good.”

    2021-09-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 458 — Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

33. “I would say I was ill-disciplined and unfocused. Some combination of the two of not the educational system not quite serving us and then us not being internally driven on our own. And I think the internal drive is actually probably the more important factor. But in those early years, we were looking for ways to get our energy out and active and running around. We weren't criminals or anything. Maybe a little bit, we were kind of, you know,”

    2021-09-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 458 — Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

34. “My dad's, you know, maybe this is a formula for success for those new folks coming in. He had 2,000 index cards, and he basically memorized the words on those 2,000 index cards and tried to screw them together in like semi-coherent sentences. And that was sufficient for him to pass a civil service exam, which is technical and join professional society.”

    2021-09-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 458 — Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

35. “It is a period that's a really hard, and I'm mindful of our new future Afghans, Americans coming here and having some immense challenges. We had a combination of some limited support. My dad refused to take, you know, he makes it a point to say he was never on welfare. He refused to take handouts. But in fact, that may have been his mentality and he was able to cope with that. I think this is a group of people that's going to need some help. It's a cultural change. It's a shocking change in the span of a short period of time. They didn't have a chance to make any of the mental or the preparatory adjustments to thrive in American society. And I hope we are welcoming and help those folks help them join American society, if not for themselves.”

    2021-09-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 458 — Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

36. “To be fair, he's reformed. He seems to be reformed and a vehement anti-Trumper, which is good. We'll take everybody we can for our team. But at the same time, my dad wanted to make it a point that he wanted us to kind of acculturate. Immerse in American society, not just the Russian immigrant society of Bretton Beach. So we were there for about a year and a half, and then we moved, we might as well have moved into a different world because we moved neighborhoods in Brooklyn and we moved from that neighborhood to a neighborhood that was between a new Asian population that was emerging, a Chinese population, Hispanic population established, Italian population, an Orthodox Jewish population, and that's kind of where we spent are probably the last 10 years before going off to university.”

    2021-09-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 458 — Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

37. “You know, it's interesting. My father made it a point to extract us from that enclave relatively quickly. We could have grown up to be Lev Parnisses or something like that, frankly, who basically was saturated in that kind of mindset.”

    2021-09-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 458 — Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

38. “Country than it was 20 years ago, we'd left an indelible mark on it. And right now the pendulum has swung very far over to Taliban control over the country, but the population hasn't actually voiced its own considered thinking on where it wants the country to go to. So we're only seeing things unfold right now.”

    2021-09-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 458 — Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

39. “Just on Afghanistan point, I'd just like to close this point because I know there's a lot that we want to cover is that the Taliban, it's one thing for the Taliban to secure seize terrain and occupy Afghanistan. It's a whole different story for them to try to rule. The 20 years of the taste of freedom, we've already seen that kind of in terms of the way the population's responded to Taliban crackdowns. It is not going to be easy. It's not going to be easy for some 75 or 100,000 Taliban to control a population of 38 million that has an expectation for a different kind of life. And the Taliban's actually, in fact, different. At least the Taliban leadership, they've been based out of Doha for a decade, and they understand what prosperity could be like. They want to preserve some of that prosperity for themselves and their clans and the tribal, at least. I think it's a different.”

    2021-09-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 458 — Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

40. “The collapse of the Soviet Union, one of the things that challenged the Soviet Union is that they were spread so thin across the globe, trying to precipitate revolutions and communist uprisings. Now we're a completely different scale, you know, much more prosperous, much more capable country. But we also probably need to focus our resources on challenges both internal and external. To me, part of my thesis for my doctoral work is that it's because of the laser focus on the global war on terror that we failed to really notice the rise of a much more aggressive Russia and China and that they in turn accepted that the US was not concerned about nation-state actors. They were concerned about global war and terror and acted to upend international norms. I would also”

    2021-09-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 458 — Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

41. “I think that's there are always calculations to be made based on interests and values. That's the way I couch how we should consider our national security, how we should consider our foreign policy. There should be a measured analysis of interests and values. And yes, there's a values-based reason to stay in Afghanistan maybe indefinitely. But from an interest perspective, we have other obligations, other considerations might need to be a little bit more thoughtful on the application of our limited resources. It seems to me that if we wanted to take on this role of a purely humanitarian role of stepping into all sorts of conflicts in the world, we would run ourselves very, very thin. As a student of, you know,”

    2021-09-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 458 — Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

42. “Disaster. But other than that, to me, what this does is frees up enormous bandwidth to deal with other challenges that directly press on U.S. national security interests.”

    2021-09-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 458 — Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

43. “The fact that the Afghan government, the Afghan military fell apart within days, to me suggests that another year, another five years, would not be the tipping point. It would be just basically putting in blood and treasure. We didn't suffer any casualties over the past year, mainly because we had a negotiated agreement with the Taliban that they wouldn't attack us. If we broke that agreement, we would have victims and we'd have to deal with more American spilled blood. But to me, it kind of justifies President Biden's courageous decision to get out. My only divergence on this point is that it could have been the withdrawal could have been managed a lot better. It could have been managed so that we withdrew all of the people that we thought we needed to that supported us over the previous 20 years without that kind of the humanitarian”

    2021-09-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 458 — Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

44. “The US has taken on as a mantle for generations. The other thing we did was we kept the enemy at bay. We fought Al-Qaeda. We fought ISIS on distant shores, although it's ISIS K obviously kept the homeland safe. I think unfortunately the execution of the drawdown necessitates two lessons. One is it probably could have been done, could have done better, could have been executed better. There should have been better contingencies. A lot of that blame falls on the Department of Defense, I think, which is well known for developing contingencies that they fail to do so. The other thing is that, in fact, I think it adds weight to Biden, President Biden's decision to withdraw.”

    2021-09-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 458 — Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

45. “I had deeply mixed feelings as things unfolded over the preceding several weeks about some introspective questions about whether it was worth it, whether the blood and treasure spilled was worth it. And we spent an enormous amount of blood and treasure on a conflict that seemingly didn't do anything for U.S. national security. But I think that's a very superficial take. I think, in fact, there are several different layers that absolutely merit some sort of attention. First of all, for 20 years, we provided a respite for an Afghan population that had no taste of what freedom democracy was like. I think to me that is, you know, if you could do that for millions of people, that is pretty amazing service. Did it directly contribute to US national security? Maybe not, but for humanity, we provided a service in the same kind of service that U.S.”

    2021-09-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 458 — Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

46. “With a mask on and tried to give him kind of a warm smile or something like that to make him feel welcome because in reality, we should be grateful for them coming here. We should be grateful for them willing to add their strength to our strength, to make this country adding maybe 100,000 more Americans that want to Join the American dream want to be part of. This country is willing to give up everything to join this country and ultimately adding to the greatness of this country in the long term. And I'm grateful for that.”

    2021-09-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 458 — Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

47. “Be a little less democratic. I'd say they're nativist and hateful towards non-white Americans. I mean, that's just a simple fact. I am concerned about him, about the fact that they might not get a warm reception and that society is very polarized, has been polarized in the past. We know as students of history that German populations, Irish populations, Italian populations were reviled when there were surges of immigrants at those periods of time. And it's unfortunate that a lot of Americans forget the hardships that their predecessors had to encounter. I know when I was through walking through the airport, it just really warmed my heart to see all those folks. They're still in shock, moving with probably in the same way that we did with just a handful of luggage and started from scratch. And I just try to give him even.”

    2021-09-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 458 — Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

48. “That somebody cares about these people, that the rest of their families thousands of miles away. So I made it a point on my trip for the Zelensky inauguration previous trips to Ukraine to always kind of make it a stop and make sure things were in good shape. And it's some sort of connection. I guess it's the only real connection we have to that part of the world. We grew up here in the US only knowing America, but there's a connection to Ukraine in that our families, our parents are, my mom's buried there, our ancestors are buried there, and those are where our roots are. Maybe that in part kind of shaped my keen focus on the region and adds to my understanding of Ukraine and the importance of Ukraine.”

    2021-09-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 458 — Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

49. “You know, I just came back from a research trip to Ukraine working on my doctorate. And every time I'm there, I see it as an obligation to visit my mother and visit my grandmother, my dad's mom, who I'd never met actually. And at least because we have no family there, clean up the gravesite, make sure that it's in good repair. And in some way, ensure that their memory is not forgotten.”

    2021-09-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 458 — Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

50. “Yes. I think that's right. It's interesting for me to think about my dad who again there's a sense of machismo that I think runs through Soviet men, you know, Ukrainian Russian men that doesn't necessarily allow them to have kind of what I would think would be a completely healthy loving relationship with their children, especially you want to raise your sons to be tough. He was disciplinarian. He was firm with us when he needed to be, but he was also very affectionate. And I think possibly that was probably because of the loss of his wife, our mother, that all that love that would have been dispersed amongst the kind of a larger family was focused on his kids.”

    2021-09-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 458 — Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source