Most everyone reading this remembers the aftermath of 9/11/2001. Our country was reeling from the attack and wanted vengeance. As we readied ourselves for sending our military into battle, we also remembered the aftermath of the Viet Nam war. Soldiers came back to a country that saw them as "baby killers" and ignored or reviled them, despite the fact that most of them were drafted, and sent off to fight in a war they didn't start. In 2001, in retrospect, we knew better.

Without the draft, and after years of only minor skirmishes, our military was not as staffed as we would have liked for the initial incursion into Afghanistan, and the later illegal invasion of Iraq. In order to bolster staffing, we offered immigrants a way to fast-track their citizenship if they joined up and fought on behalf of the country they were trying to adopt as their own. That was the promise.

It was a promise kept, until tRump came into office. With his rabid anti-immigrant stance infecting all branches of government and RW media, veterans of the Iraq war were deported for getting into legal trouble. It was yet another shame on this nation.

This is all prelude to what happened to Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman of the U.S. Army. He was brought to the U.S. at the age of 3 from the Ukraine (which was part of the USSR at the time) with the rest of his family after his mother died. After graduating from college, he joined the Army, and served in S. Korea, Germany, and Iraq during the initial invasion. Wounded by an IED, he earned a purple heart. His military career is sterling. He later worked at the Pentagon, then the NSC.

It was in that latest role where he happened to be listening to the infamous call between tRump and the president of Ukraine while in the Situation Room with other personnel. After testifying before Congress as part of the impeachment inquiry, the right-wing responded in the only way they know how - they tried to smear him.

CNN's token right-wing douche Sean Duffy (formerly a House Rep from Wisconsin) said on CNN that Vindman speaks Ukrainian, as if that threw his allegiance to America into doubt:

Even worse, John Yoo (the author of the infamous "Torture Memo" during Dubya's reign) suggested on Laura Ingraham's FOX "News" show that Vindman could be a "double-agent". The rest of the talking heads on that panel did not disagree with him.

In response, CNN anchor Nichole Wallace called GOP pundits "chickenshit" (video at link). Liz Cheney (R-WY of all people) condemned the attacks on Vindman as well.

Republicans - the authors of the "Do YOU support The Troops" method of shutting down opposition to war - seem to have lost their way. Or perhaps they only support the troops who agree with their particular brand of political philosophy.