Afghanistan debacle fuels general officer crisis | Washington Examiner
One Marine lieutenant colonel just evinced this sentiment in a Facebook video post. Looking directly into the camera, Stuart Scheller stated , “I think what you believe in can only be defined by what you re willing to risk. So, if I m willing to risk my current battalion commander seat, my retirement, my family s stability to say some of the things I want to say, I think it gives me some moral high ground to demand the same honesty, integrity, accountability from my senior leaders.”Explaining his “demand for accountability,” Scheller referenced the double standards applied to field grade officers and general officers. He noted that if a “battalion commander has the simplest live-fire incident, [equal opportunity] complaint. Boom. Fired.” But Scheller pointed out that there has been no accountability for the litany of leadership failures that have defined the withdrawal from Afghanistan. He noted that “we have a secretary of defense that testified to Congress in May that the Afghan National Security Forces could withstand the Taliban advance. We have chairmen of the Joint Chiefs who the [Marine Corps] commandant is a member of [the Joint Chiefs] who s supposed to advise on military policy. We have a Marine combatant commander. All of these people are supposed to advise.”
Scheller’s point is well-made. But the lieutenant colonel’s is just one example of the Pentagon’s double standards fetish.