A Marine officer who criticized the U.S. handling of the withdrawal from Afghanistan is expected to plead guilty to several charges against him.
After 13 Marines were killed in a suicide bombing at Kabul Airport, Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller Jr. took to social media in his uniform questioning why no senior leaders came forward to admit that there were mistakes made in the withdrawal.
“The reason people are so upset on social media right now is not because the Marines on the battlefield let someone down. … 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 this up,’” he said.
Scheller faces several charges including contempt toward officials, disrespect toward superior commissioned officers, willfully disobeying a superior commissioned officer, dereliction in the performance of duties and failure to obey lawful general orders and conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman.
He spent a week in confinement and will be court-martial at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina on Thursday.
Scheller’s attorney, Tim Parlatore told the Washington Post that he will plead guilty to some charges and will seek a discharge that allows him to keep some of the military benefits he accrued in his 17 years of service.
“Our hope is for him to get a letter of reprimand, and no more,” Parlatore said.
“The real big question that remains is whether all the very important messages that he brought out will be adopted because, while the Marine Corp. leadership can sit there and say” he shouldn’t have taken his comments online ‘nobody is saying that he said anything that was untrue,'” he added.
