Marine Officer Pleads Guilty to 6 Misdemeanors for Critiquing Afghanistan Withdrawal

Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller Jr. pleaded guilty on Thursday to six misdemeanor charges related to publicly criticizing military leaders regarding the United States’ withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Scheller, a 17-year Marine Corps veteran, was relieved of duty in August after publishing a Facebook video in which he condemned  military leaders.

“I’m not saying we’ve got to be in Afghanistan forever, but I am saying: Did any of you throw your rank on the table and say, ‘Hey, it’s a bad idea to evacuate Bagram Airfield, a strategic airbase, before we evacuate everyone’?” Scheller said in the video, addressing military officials responsible for an evacuation that led to the country’s fall to the Taliban and the deaths of 13 U.S. service members. “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?'”

Scheller was charged this month on six counts of violating the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The charges included contempt toward officials; disrespect toward superior commissioned officers; willfully disobeying a superior commissioned officer; failure to obey orders; dereliction of duty; and conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman.

An attorney for Scheller, Tim Parlatore, told reporters that Scheller was pleading guilty to make a point. “He will show the generals what accountability looks like,” Parlatore said prior to the hearing. He added that Scheller was willing to forfeit more than $2 million in retirement pay, but was requesting an honorable discharge.