Military Brass Finally Fire Someone for Afghanistan Debacle ... the Marine Who Called Them Out
An active-duty U.S. Marine lieutenant colonel made a video asking why no one had yet resigned or taken responsibility for the Afghanistan debacle. In the end, the brass found someone to blame: him.
Marine Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller, an infantry commander who Task and Purpose reports was stationed at Camp Lejeune, made a video in which he asks what’s on the minds of most Americans: Why has no one taken responsibility for this mess?
The video went supernova because millions of Americans are wondering the same thing. Why didn’t the Secretary of Defense, Secretary of State, and top Pentagon brass resign or be fired for this predictable calamity?
I’m not saying we’ve got to be in Afghanistan forever, but I am saying: Did any of you throw your rank on the table and say ‘hey, it’s a bad idea to evacuate Bagram Airfield, a strategic airbase, before we evacuate everyone?
Scheller wasn’t done. In the video, which he shared to Facebook and LinkedIn, he asked said he knew one of the Marines killed at the Kabul airport.
But he maintained that wasn’t what prompted the video.
I’ve been in the Marine infantry for 17 years. I started my tour with Victor 1-8, that’s the current unit that’s doing perimeter security, dealing with the mess that’s going on there. You can see open-source reporting that there was an explosion and some people were killed. I know through my inside channels that one of the people that was killed was someone that I have a personal relationship with. I won’t go into more detail because the families are still being notified.
I’m not making this video because it’s potentially an emotional time. I’m making it because I have a growing discontent and contempt for [the] perceived ineptitude at the foreign policy level and I want to specifically ask some questions to some of my senior leaders.
Scheller knew what he was doing and said if this had been done by someone in his command he would fire him.
The father of three realized he might lose his pension and put his family in a bad way.
As a person that’s not at 20 years, I feel that I have a lot to lose … especially if the video picks up traction, if I have the courage to post it. But I believe that what you believe in is really defined by what you’re willing to risk. And if I’m willing to risk my current battalion commander seat, my retirement, my family’s stability, to say some of the things I’m going to say, I think it gives me some moral high ground to demand the same honesty and integrity from my senior leaders.
Later the veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan posted that he had been fired.
On Twitter, a man who said he was in the Navy for 15 years, suggested someone start a GoFundMe account to make up for Scheller’s lost pension.
In his words, “Courage should be rewarded. – a Naval officer with 15 years.”
The top fundraisers on the site are for Afghanistan causes. Maybe Lt. Col. Scheller will soon be one of them.