Perhaps it takes a madman to speak truth to power.
Lieutenant Colonel Stuart Scheller is a 17-year Marine Corps Infantry Officer and a combat veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan. He looks the part. He commanded an infantry battalion, and his career reflects considerable achievement.
On August 27—the day after 11 United States Marines, an Army soldier, and a Navy Corpsman were killed in Afghanistan—Col. Scheller posted a four-minute video. In uniform, he criticized the exit from that country and asked for accountability from those responsible.
He cited “growing discontent and contempt for…perceived ineptitude at the foreign policy level. ” Leaders like him have their careers ruined over isolated incidents—one lost weapon, say, or a discrimination complaint. He noted the double standard applied by his leaders to themselves. “Did any of you throw your rank on the table [i.e., offer to resign] and say ‘hey, it’s a bad idea to evacuate Bagram Airfield, a strategic airbase, before we evacuate everyone’? Did anyone do that? And when you didn’t think to do that, did anyone raise their hand and say ‘we completely messed this up?”
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Perhaps it takes a madman to speak truth to power.
>
Lieutenant Colonel Stuart Scheller is a 17-year Marine Corps Infantry Officer and a combat veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan. He looks the part. He commanded an infantry battalion, and his career reflects considerable achievement.
>
On August 27—the day after 11 United States Marines, an Army soldier, and a Navy Corpsman were killed in Afghanistan—Col. Scheller posted a four-minute video. In uniform, he criticized the exit from that country and asked for accountability from those responsible.
>
He cited “growing discontent and contempt for…perceived ineptitude at the foreign policy level. ” Leaders like him have their careers ruined over isolated incidents—one lost weapon, say, or a discrimination complaint. He noted the double standard applied by his leaders to themselves. “Did any of you throw your rank on the table [i.e., offer to resign] and say ‘hey, it’s a bad idea to evacuate Bagram Airfield, a strategic airbase, before we evacuate everyone’? Did anyone do that? And when you didn’t think to do that, did anyone raise their hand and say ‘we completely messed this up?”
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