Ambition independent of other factors isn’t necessarily a bad thing. However, when coupled with the responsibility of maintaining the defense of the United States of America, the desire for career advancement is standing out as a conduit for the “systemic issues rotting the military.”
Former U.S. Marine Corps Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller refused to backdown when it came to speaking out against the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 and it cost him his military career. Since his discharge from the Marines after 17 years of service, he has remained true to his convictions that “the war isn’t over” and is continuing to speak out against the failures of leadership that put “people-pleasing” ahead of the mission.
The Daily Mail interviewed Scheller for Memorial Day and he didn’t hold back when he expressed precisely where he saw the failings in the ranks. “The problem is, you have generals that try to please their bosses. So what happens is you get generals that will just do anything to please the politicians,” he explained, “because it takes Congress to get appointed to be a three or four-star general.”
The book “Crisis of Command: How We Lost Trust and Confidence in America’s Generals and Politicians” is set to release on September 6, and its author Scheller went on to say, “And so they’re willing to inject into the military the initiatives of the politicians of the time without advocating for what’s best for the military, which is what a general should do.”
Retired Army Ranger opens up about military racism, ‘worrisome’ non-existent extremism https://t.co/mEHrKcREkS
— American Wire News (@americanwire_) April 19, 2022
When President Joe Biden took office, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin reportedly spent over 6 million man-hours in their promotion of leftist agendas, including an investigation into extremism within the ranks that proved it was extremely rare.
As a result, retired U.S. Army Master Sgt. Jariko Denman said, “As an organization it’s apolitical…but I do think that a lot of the decisions are made or not made…with politics in mind.”
Scheller’s sentiments were similar when he stated, “So it’s not necessarily woke – but that you just have people-pleasing generals, and they cater to whatever person is in charge at that time, rather than advocate for what’s best for the military.”
“The Secretary of Defense made a comment after 100 days in office that said the biggest problem facing the Department of Defense was COVID. And that is just a perfect example of how misguided the focus of the military is,” he lamented. “There are systemic issues rotting the military.”
Since his military service ended, Scheller’s marriage also fell apart, but he acknowledged that the right thing to do isn’t necessarily the easy thing and said doing otherwise would have been a failure to his sons.
“I think it would have been easier to sit in the stability of my retirement with my wife, my three sons, but for my entire life my goal has been leave a better America for my three sons. And I think had I not done what I did my sons wouldn’t have as good of a future,” he explained.
“At the end of the day I did what I thought was right. There’s a saying in the Marine Corps that you’re a leader 24/7. If you’re really a leader 24/7 then you need to do the hard thing, even if it comes at the expense of everything,” Scheller expressed. “So everything I did was not because I was mad at the military. It was because I love the Marines. I love the military. And it’s what America stands for. But we’ve gotten off track and somebody needed to say it.”
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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