Marine officer says he was relieved after video calling out senior military leaders for failures in Afghanistan

• A US Marine Corps battalion commander called out senior military leaders in a video on social media.
• Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller demanded accountability for senior leaders for failings in Afghanistan.
• Scheller acknowledged that he put his career on the line by posting it. He was relieved of duty Friday.

A Marine Corps battalion commander posted a video on social media Thursday demanding accountability from senior leaders for failures in Afghanistan. He said he was relieved of duty Friday afternoon.

"I'm making [this video] because I have a growing discontent and contempt for my perceived ineptitude at the foreign policy level and I want to specifically ask some questions to some of my senior leaders," Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller said in the video, appearing in his uniform.

Scheller, who commands the Advanced Infantry Training Battalion and has served in both Iraq and Afghanistan, acknowledged that he was putting his military career of 17 years on the line.

"I think that what you believe in can only be defined by what you are willing to risk," the infantry officer said.

The situation inside Afghanistan has deteriorated rapidly in recent weeks. The Taliban took over the country, the US and its partners are scrambling to evacuate people, and people are dying. On Thursday, an ISIS terrorist attack killed 13 US troops and scores of civilians.

Last week, Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. David Berger wrote a letter to the force acknowledging that some Marines may be struggling with questions of whether or not their service and sacrifice was worth it.

"You fought to defend your country, your family, your friends, and your neighbors," he wrote. "You fought to prevent terror from returning to our shores. You fought for the liberty of young Afghan girls, women, boys, and men who want the same individual freedoms we enjoy as Americans. You fought for the Marine to your left and the Marine to your right. You never let them down."

Responding to the letter, Scheller said that people are not upset "because the Marine 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 called attention to remarks from the secretary of defense suggesting the Afghan forces could withstand the Taliban and questioned the advice senior military leaders have been giving the president.

"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.' 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?'"

He said there have been questions about whether or not US military personnel who died in the war did so in vain.

Scheller said that "potentially all those people did die in vain if we don't have senior leaders that own up and raise their hand and say 'we did not do this well in the end,'" adding that "without that we just keep repeating the same mistakes."

"We are aware of the video," Marine Corps spokesperson Maj. Jim Stenger told Insider. "This is obviously an emotional time for a lot of Marines, and we encourage anyone struggling right now to seek counseling or talk to a fellow Marine. There is a forum in which Marine leaders can address their disagreements with the chain of command, and it's not social media."

Reflecting on the risks to his military career in calling out senior leaders, Scheller said: "I am willing to throw it all away to say to my senior leaders, 'I demand accountability.'"

Friday afternoon, Scheller posted another social media post announcing that he had been relieved due to a "lack of trust and confidence."

Scheller began his career with the 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, which is one of the units currently supporting evacuation efforts in Kabul. He indicated in the video that he knows one of the people killed in the deadly attack at the airport Thursday.