LTC Scheller

Don’s Diatribes-LTC Scheller

These great evils which men inflict on one another because of divergent tendencies, because of passions, opinions, and creeds, all spring from a lack, for they all result from ignorance-that is, lack of knowledge. Just as the blind man, because of the lack of sight, constantly bumps himself, hurts himself and even hurts others where there is no one to guide him, so hostile parties of men, each according to the degree of their ignorance, inflict, on themselves and on others, evils which weigh heavily on the individuals of the human race. If they possessed knowledge, which is to human form what the visual faculty is to the eye, they would be prevented from doing any harm to themselves and to others; for the knowledge of the truth ends intolerance and hatred, and prevents men from inflicting reciprocal evil. — Sir (Saint) Thomas More 1478–1535

LTC Stuart Scheller, a Marine who served for 17 years and was relieved of command in August of this year after publicly expressing his views on how the military pulled troops out of Afghanistan, including abandoning Bagram Air Base before the withdrawal.

“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,’” Scheller said in his first video. After being relieved from command, Scheller continued to post videos on social media, which included:

“I have read the entire UCMJ [Uniform Code of Military Justice] in the last two weeks of my purgatory — all of the punitive articles — and it turns out that all military officers are subject to the UCMJ…Because it appears to me that no general officers are willing to hold each other accountable, I am submitting charges against Gen. McKenzie for his bad assumptions — not because I’m vindictive, but because the senior leaders need to be held accountable to the same standard as us.”

After that posting, Scheller was issued a gag order to stop posting on social media, and that did not stop him from continuing. Following that gag order, in his last social media post, Scheller stated “What happens when all you do is speak truth and no one wants to hear it. But they can probably stop listening because… I’m crazy… right?. Col Emmel please have the MPs waiting for me at 0800 on Monday. I’m ready for jail.” Monday morning that is exactly what happened.

“Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller Jr. is currently in pre-trial confinement in the Regional Brig for Marine Corps Installations East aboard Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune pending an Article 32 preliminary hearing,” said Capt. Sam Stephenson, a spokesman for Training and Education Command. “The time, date, and location of the proceedings have not been determined. Lt. Col. Scheller will be afforded all due process.” Scheller is accused of the following offenses under the UCMJ: Article 88: Contempt toward officials, Article 90: Willfully disobeying superior commissioned officer, Article 92: Failure to obey an order, and Article 133: Conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman.

This whole situation provides a great case study on ethics in military leadership. Was Scheller wrong? Was he ethical?

The United States Marine Corps states that “Our Core Values are Honor, Courage and Commitment, and if you are to become one of us, they will be the values you live by and fight with as well. They are the building blocks that will aid you in making the right decisions at the right time, both on the battlefield and in our Nation’s communities.”

Did Scheller’s actions demonstrate a conflict between Courage and Commitment?

While none of us can exactly understand the decision cycle that has gone on in Scheller’s head, and while we may have differing opinions on his decision to continue pressing the system, we can all agree on what the tipping point was for him. His initial posting was driven by the devastating suicide bombing at Kabul airport, which killed 13 US service members and at least 169 Afghans on 24 August. A few days later, on 29 August, the US Military responded with a drone strike on what they claimed was an ISIS-planner. It turned out this was wrong. At the time of the drone strike the US Military stated “Initial indications are that we killed the target. We know of no civilian casualties”.[i] Many in the news media questioned this claim and several bomb experts were on television providing “expert analysis” that contradicted the US Military’s claims.

A couple weeks later, on 17 September, GEN McKenzie, after an internal investigation, admitted to reporters that “This strike was taken in the earnest belief that it would prevent an imminent threat to our forces and the evacuees at the airport, but it was a mistake and I offer my sincere apology. I am now convinced that as many as 10 civilians, including up to 7 children, were tragically killed in that strike.” [ii] Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin also had a press release on the 17th of September following a briefing he received from GEN McKenzie. The person targeted was actually a humanitarian worker with absolutely no connection to ISIS; Mr. Ahmadi, of the Nutrition and Education International. In his statement Austin said “We now know that there was no connection between Mr. Ahmadi and ISIS-Khorasan, that his activities on that day were completely harmless and not at all related to the imminent threat we believed we faced, and that Mr. Ahmadi was just as innocent a victim as were the others tragically killed. We apologize, and we will endeavor to learn from this horrible mistake.”[iii]

Mistakes happen, but during Congressional testimony on the 29th of September, Mississippi Representative Trent Kelly pushed for more information. Secretary Austin, GEN Milley, and GEN McKenzie, when pushed, confirmed they all knew within hours the strike had killed civilians. In their testimony Austin said he learned civilians had been killed “several hours after” the strike when it was reported to him by McKenzie. Milley said it was the “same thing” for him, and added, “We knew that civilians were killed, we knew that noncombatants, and there was collateral damage.” McKenzie further explained by stating “Well, so, we knew the strike hit civilians within four or five hours after the strike occurred, and U.S. Central Command released a press release saying that,” McKenzie said. “We did not know, though, that the target of the strike was in fact in error, a mistake, until sometime later. It took us a few days to run that down.”[iv] The Pentagon did not admit that until long after. Remember, the original Press Release stated “initial indications are that we killed the target. We know of no civilian casualties”. Although on the 17th of September GEN McKenzie and Secretary Austin stated civilian casualties had occurred, it wasn’t until the Congressional Testimony on the 29th that they all admitted they had known that since the 29th of August.

Let’s go back to LTC Scheller for a moment. While all this is going on regarding the reporting on the drone strike, Scheller is being told to be quiet. He claimed in one of his social media posts that the marine corps has offered him “a very fair deal. Instead of court-martial, they’ve offered me non-judicial punishment for violation of two articles, as long as I’m willing to resign my commission, give up my retirement, and accept a general discharge under honorable conditions.”

But the drone strike isn’t the only tragic event that was taking place post that suicide bombing at Kabul Airport. Additionally, on 30 August, MG Donahue, commander of the 82nd Airborne Division steps aboard the last U.S. military C-17 cargo jet shortly before it lifted off from the Afghan capital’s sole international airport Monday. The image is captured and is circulated across social media. While all the US Military personnel have left, Americans, allies, and Afghan partners are left behind.

That is a lot to absorb for those who have been personally involved in the 20 year War in Afghanistan.

Were there other issues of perceived senior leader incompetence that Scheller observed over his 17 year career lead to his tipping point?

In the summer of 2020 sexual assaults and issues at Fort Hood made front page news. The Fort Hood Independent Review Committee concluded that the Command Climate failed to instill SHARP Core values and that the command climate was permissive of sexual harassment / sexual assault. Fourteen U.S. Army leaders, including commanders and other leaders at Fort Hood, have been fired or suspended in an effort to correct a years-long culture of sexual assault and a pattern of violence at the base.

Also in the Summer of 2020 riots spurred on by the murder of George Floyd by Derek Chauvin. While that horrible event had nothing to do with the military, it did bring to light for many Americans an issue that had existed, particularly in the Army for decades; the honoring of confederate generals through the names on military forts, camps, and installations. At the time, many generals stepped up and went on record to acknowledge that they were not aware of the perception honoring confederate generals has had in the ranks. They simply had not seen an issue over their careers.

Also during the summer riots of 2020, the US Military saw live on TV, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs march through the streets of Washington DC dispersing protestors for a photo op in front of St John’s Church. He later apologized saying “I should not have been there”.

Senior Leaders not fully understanding the strategic issue was echoed again when Milley, McKenzie and Secretary Austin in September of 2021 while testifying before Congress on the Afghanistan withdrawal. Senators pressed the three men on why the Pentagon failed to predict the rapid collapse of the Afghan government and Afghan military, why the United States did not start evacuating Americans and vulnerable Afghans from the country sooner, and whether Mr. Biden heeded their advice to keep a counterterrorism force of 2,500 on the ground. “It was a logistical success but a strategic failure,” General Milley said, echoing the words of Senator Thom Tillis, Republican of North Carolina, from earlier in the hearing. Secretary Austin, conceded that the collapse of the Afghan army in the final weeks of the war — in many cases without firing a shot — took top commanders by surprise.[v]

In another online post, prior to his confinement Scheller wrote “General officers for the last 20 years have given bad advice consistently, and none of them have been held accountable. I do not believe the American people are as divided as much as you think they are. The people in the establishment right now currently have the power because we allow it to happen…I am asking for accountability of my senior leaders. I love the Constitution, I love America, I love Americans.”

The United States spent $290 million every day for 7,300 days on its war efforts and nation-building projects in Afghanistan, says a report compiled by Brown University.[vi] Nearly half of that has been spent since the Navy SEALS killed Osama bin Laden in 2011. In fact, the US dropped 7,300 bombs on Afghanistan in 2018, more than any other year.

Is Scheller also impacted by Senior Leader ethical misconduct?

In 2016, Oxford University Press published Military Ethics What Everyone Need to Know by George Lucas.[vii] In the introduction to that book Lucas reminds us of the 2003 sanctioned moral failing at Abu Graib and the 2013 NCIS investigation involving “Fat Leonard”. Lucas goes on to remind the reader of GEN Martin Dempsey, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who at the time of writing the book stated that “ethical lapses” and “moral failures” among individual members of the General Staff and senior officer corps constituted one of the most grave crisis he faced daily.[viii]

The former G4 of the Army was reduced in rank and his name was removed from the walls of the US Army War College for a plagiarism scandal

A former IMCOM Commander, also a 3-Star was relieved for “loss of trust”?

Several Division Commander’s, Commander’s at the different Army Center’s of Excellence, and a former Commander of United States Army Africa / Southern European Task Force were all relieved due to zipper issues within the last few years.

MG James Grazioplene who pleaded guilty in Virginia to aggravated sexual battery for molesting and raping his teenage daughter while on active duty. This case was first reported to Army officials in 2015. The military launched an investigation and initially found enough evidence to move toward a trial in 2017, yet then declared a five-year statute of limitations existed for sexual assault in the military. Thank goodness Prince William County took up the case and now he is sitting in jail.

Could all these ethical issues amongst senior military leader’s be leaving questions unanswered in Scheller over his 17 years of service?

Are they ethical failures as a result of ignorance, lack of knowledge, or blindspots? Could Dunning-Kruger be at play? Dunning-Kruger is a phenomenon that describes how some people believe they’re much smarter, competent, or capable than they really are. In 1999, Cornell University social psychologist David Dunning and graduate student Justin Kruger, coined the term in their article, “Unskilled and Unaware of It,” in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. In the military the Dunning-Kruger effect often manifests itself through incompetent leaders incapable of recognizing their own incompetence. Simply put, they are convinced they excel when they don’t and lack any ability to accurately assess their own incompetence.

It was 1976 when the College Board provided one of the largest samples of superiority bias. Of the million students who took the SAT exam, 70% believed that they were above average, something that, statistically, was impossible. If we were all as good and smart as we think we are, the world would be an infinitely better place. The problem is that between our self-perception and reality mediates the Wobegon effect.

14 years ago LTC Paul Yingling wrote “A Failure in Generalship”. In his article Yingling stated that “the intellectual and moral failures… constitute a crisis in American generals”. At the time, the article was mandatory reading at both the Command and General Staff College and US Army War College. Many organizations in the Army used the article for leadership development programs for their officers. LTC Scheller was likely a young captain, perhaps filling a command position at the time. Regardless, he was likely exposed to the article in those early years of his career. The conclusions by Yingling were that the system for selecting general officers was broken and that Congress was not providing appropriate oversight or holding generals accountable. “If America desires creative intelligence and moral courage in its general officer corps, it must create a system that rewards these qualities. Congress can create such incentives by exercising its proper oversight function in three areas. First, Congress must change the system for selecting general officers. Second, oversight committees must apply increased scrutiny over generating the necessary means and pursuing appropriate ways for applying America’s military power. Third, the Senate must hold accountable through its confirmation powers those officers who fail to achieve the aims of policy at an acceptable cost in blood and treasure”.

While LTC Scheller sits in the brig, being held accountable for his actions, what is being done to address the issues that brought him to where he sits today?

Don MacCuish

[i] U.S. Central Command statement on counterterrorism strike on ISIS-K planner

By U.S. Central Command Public Affairs U.S. Central Command Communication Integration. https://www.centcom.mil/MEDIA/STATEMENTS/Statements-View/Article/2755890/us-central-command-statement-on-counterterrorism-strike-on-isis-k-planner/. Aug. 27, 2021.

[ii] General Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr. Commander of U.S. Central Command and Pentagon Press Secretary John F. Kirby Hold a Press Briefing, SEPT 17, 2021. https://www.centcom.mil/MEDIA/Transcripts/Article/2781320/general-kenneth-f-mckenzie-jr-commander-of-us-central-command-and-pentagon-pres/. Sep, 20, 2021.

[iii] Statement by Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III on the Results of Central Command Investigation Into the 29 August Airstrike. https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/2780404/statement-by-secretary-of-defense-lloyd-j-austin-iii-on-the-results-of-central/source/GovDelivery/. Sep 17, 2021.

[iv] House Armed Services Committee Hearing on Afghanistan Withdrawal. https://www.c-span.org/video/?514922-1/defense-secretary-austin-generals-milley-mckenzie-testify-afghanistan-withdrawal. Sep 29, 2001.

[v] As Senators Grill Defense Officials on Afghan ‘Strategic Failure,’ Milley Defends Calls to China. New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/09/28/us/senate-hearing. Sep 28, 2021.

[vi] Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs Brown University. Cost of War Database. https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/figures/2021/human-and-budgetary-costs-date-us-war-afghanistan-2001-2022

[vii] Mr Lucas is an American philosopher and a professor of ethics and public policy at the Graduate School of Public Policy at the Naval Postgraduate School. Previously he was the Distinguished Chair in Ethics in the Vice Admiral James B. Stockdale Center for Ethical Leadership at the U.S. Naval Academy.

[viii] Lucas, George. Military Ethics What Everyone Needs to Know. Oxford University Press. 2016.

Don MacCuish

Originally published at https://medium.com on January 15, 2022.