The Marine who was jailed and discharged earlier this year for publicly criticizing the Biden administration’s disastrous military withdrawal from Afghanistan blamed the “systemic” problems in the Department of Defense as the reason more soldiers refused to speak up.
Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller, who served for 17 years and spent time in Afghanistan and Iraq, said he was surprised more members of the military didn’t demand accountability for the Biden’s administration’s failures in Afghanistan.
“What I thought would happen was more people would rally behind me and the senior leaders would be forced to address it, or at least one senior leader would be brave enough to address it,” Scheller told the Washington Examiner. “And that didn’t really play out the way I envisioned it.”
Instead, Scheller was thrown into the brig and charged with six misdemeanor-level offenses under the Uniform Code of Military Justice: Article 88, contempt toward officials; Article 89, disrespect toward superior commissioned officers; Article 90, willfully disobeying a superior commissioned officer; Article 92, dereliction in the performance of duties; Article 92, failure to obey order or regulation; and Article 133, conduct unbecoming of an officer and a gentleman.
Despite this, Scheller said he is “grateful” for the time he spent in the military.
“I am very grateful for everything that I got to experience,” he explained. “It’s made me the man that I am. It’s made me the leader that I am. I wouldn’t be here today If it wasn’t for the military. I’m very grateful for the opportunities.”
Moving forward, Scheller said he plans to continue demanding accountability from the military and forcing leading military officials to answer for “their nepotism and the fundamental issues in procurement and their education system.”
Scheller was punished for posting a viral video in October in which he slammed the Biden administration for botching the military’s disastrous and deadly withdrawal from Afghanistan.
“The reason people are so upset on social media right now is not because the Marine on the battlefield let someone down,” he said in the video. “People are upset because their senior leaders let them down. And none of them are raising their hands and accepting accountability or saying, ‘We messed up.’”
