Great show, both as to the conversation with Alex Vindman and your own exchange that followed. Vindman’s historical analysis

was not only cogent but remarkably complete, as was hid analysis of the unknowns going forward; or unsettling more to the point.

And on your discussion of the consequences of squeezing out the collective knowledge of roughly the middle-third of the country’s national security national security establishment, it’s worth adding that it wouldn’t be the first time this has happened. The most recent example bring the “Peace Dividend” following the collapse of the USSR, in which so many professionals with expertise in Russia/Eastern Europe and/or their respective language found themselves without viable career opportunities in the government. And in the process laying the groundwork for some of the policy blunders of both the GW Bush and Obama Administration.

With the key distinction that in the first case the US left the field in victory, however prematurely. While the current circumstances can only be described as tragic.