Marine fired for criticizing military leaders resigns, says chasing stability makes ‘slave to the system’

The U.S. Marine relieved of his command for calling out his superiors over the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal that led to the deaths of 13 service members said Sunday he was officially resigning. 

In a tell-all video posted on social media, Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller acknowledged he was sacrificing a comfortable retirement by criticizing the way the withdrawal was handled. 

"I could stay in the Marine Corps for another three years, but I don’t think that’s the path I’m on. I’m resigning my commission as a United States Marine, effective now," Scheller said. "I am forfeiting retirements, all entitlements, I don’t want a single dollar. I don’t want any money from the VA. I don’t want any VA benefits [even though] I’m sure I’m entitled 100%." 

Scheller ignited a firestorm of controversy Thursday for posting a less than five-minute video in which he went after top military brass for not taking responsibility over an ISIS attack in Afghanistan that resulted in the deaths of 11 Marines, an Army soldier, a Navy corpsman and 169 Afghans. 

"I'm not saying we need 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 last Thursday. "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’?" 

Speaking to the pushback he had received from that video, Scheller said all he was asking for was "accountability of my senior leaders when there are clear obvious mistakes that were made."

"I’m not saying we can take back what has been done. All I asked for was accountability, for people to comment on what I said and to say, ‘Yes. Mistakes were made.’ And had they done that I would've gone back into rank and file, submitted, and accomplished what I wanted," Scheller said.