Marine veteran Stuart Scheller slammed the hypocrisy of a system where he was punished hard and swiftly for calling for accountability from senior military leaders for the Afghanistan withdrawal — while those leaders escaped scrutiny — in an exclusive interview with Breitbart News.
“Look [at] that the unjust way they handled my situation. And yet we can’t even look at the obvious facts of the Afghanistan evacuation and say these people should also be held accountable,” he said in the interview ahead of the publication of his new book on Tuesday, Crisis of Command: How We Lost Trust and Confidence in America’s Generals and Politicians.
“My message, everyone agreed with it, but they were upset with the method in which I did it. And my point was, if the system is failing, why are all of us so concerned about the rules within the failing system and not…focusing on changing the system and holding our senior leaders to the same standards?” he said.
Scheller famously recorded a video criticizing the Afghanistan withdrawal after the death of 13 service members during the withdrawal, including 11 Marines, and posted it to his Facebook page, asking for senior leaders and politicians to be held accountable.
He was fired from his position for violating the Marine Corps’ social media policy. After he continued to post videos, he was sent for a mental health evaluation and warned to stop. Eventually, he was jailed in a military brig and released after agreeing to a special court-martial where he was fined and discharged.
Meanwhile a year after the withdrawal, he noted, no senior military leader has been held accountable for the withdrawal.
Scheller said he tried to prefer charges against Marine Gen. Frank McKenzie, then-U.S. Central Command commander and in charge of Afghanistan and the Middle East region, but that he was blocked by his chain of command and that McKenzie was able to retire without facing accountability.
However, he said he hopes that his book will help Americans better understand how to hold the military accountable.
“I think accountability signals what we as Americans believe to be important. So we as Americans should expect a plan built on coherent thought. We should expect a leader to win a war or achieve the political objectives set forth for the campaign. And when those things fall short, accountability signals that ‘Hey, this was important and you failed to achieve it,'” he said.
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