THE WASHINGTON POST MAGAZINE 19suppress peaceful protests. Dealing with the 11,000 dead and
the broken families on the Russian side, that hasn’t unfolded.
So these are factors that are going to lead to the end.
How much do you worry about being wrong and what the
implications could be?
Look, I guess I could think there’s maybe a personal cost for
me for going so far out on a limb in writing my articles or
speaking out publicly. That I could lose some credibility. That’s
fine. But there’s a logic behind this idea of an ounce of
prevention to prevent more catastrophic outcomes. We didn’t
do enough to prevent the catastrophic outcome of a war
between Russia and Ukraine. And we’re not doing enough to
prevent a catastrophic outcome of a larger war that spills over.
So I’ve dropped the niceties of being restrained.
I think my role is to offer constructive criticism and be an
informed voice of what this administration needs to do moving
forward. It needs to support Ukraine. It needs to implement
Lend-Lease, which is this idea of unlimited supplies of
equipment going into Ukraine, so Ukraine could fight this war
and deal with the humanitarian catastrophe. It’s the food, fuel,
medicines that the Ukrainians need, but it’s also the armament
and the weapons systems that they need to fight and hold off
disaster. Because we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg right
now. Russia is gathering its strength for a much, much harsher
attack on cities and urban centers. And we could play a role
and avoid some of that catastrophe.
The way I see it, I’m just one guy, one man. And I’m fighting
for something that’s much, much bigger than me. [Before,] it
was about adding my voice to urge the administration to do
Retired Lt. Col.
Alexander Vindman
before the House
Intelligence
Committee during
President Donald
Trump’s 2019
impeachment
hearings.PHOTO: MELINA MARA
more to avert it. And now it’s about urging the administration
to prevent us from stumbling into a hot war.You were a public servant for a long time. Does your
outspokenness now make it harder to return to public
service?
I think it probably makes it harder. You know, I burned my
bridges on the right. They call me a traitor for publicly
exposing corruption in the Trump administration. Whereas
under normal circumstances a military officer with my kind of
experience on national security issues would probably be
welcome. And I’m probably burning some relationships on the
left because you have a political class on the left that is laser-
focused on protecting the chief executive, protecting the party
going into upcoming elections. And I get that. But I’m looking
past the party politics. I’m looking towards what we need to do
as a country to avoid greater dangers. And I will do what I can
to help going forward. But part of that is, right now, using my
voice to inform them to make the right decisions. It’s part of
everything that I’ve worked my entire military professional
career on: protecting the United States, protecting the United
States’ interests. And they’re not doing that sufficiently.
So I’ve written pieces, I try to engage with the
administration. I’ve talked to dozens of congressmen and
women, senators, to the general public, and try to inform them
based on my experience about what we’re facing. And I’d like to
think that in certain ways, I maybe help nudge the needle in
the right direction. So I guess I consider myself still serving.KK Ottesen is a frequent contributor to the magazine.