Counter-Currents
Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller
1,414 words
A persecuted Marine officer has become a folk hero to conservatives. Lieutenant Colonel Stuart Scheller went viral in August after he publicly criticized military leaders over the debacle in Afghanistan. Scheller particularly attacked senior commanders for not resisting the abandonment of Bagram Air Base, which occurred over a month before the US’ withdrawal from the country was completed. This echoed popular talking points about why our final exit from the country was so chaotic, since it had to be managed from Kabul’s civilian airport instead, which was close to the city center and difficult to defend. Critics say that if the US military had kept Bagram until the end, we would have had a more orderly departure.
Scheller’s criticism made him a martyr after he was relieved of command following his comments. He didn’t shut up, and vowed to expose the military’s dirty deeds for all the world to see. He was eventually arrested and thrown into the brig for violating a gag order the military had placed on him. This only increased his capital as a martyr – as well as funding for his legal defense fund.
Conservatives see him as a sign that military officers and enlisted men are ready to rise up against their woke commanders. In reality he doesn’t show that, however. Scheller’s only criticisms related to how the departure from Afghanistan was conducted, and insisting that we should have remained there. That’s not the America First position. Moreover, he doesn’t like Donald Trump or his movement, who are the very people helping him. He said this in a Facebook post:
President Trump. I was told by everyone to kiss the ring because of your following and power. I refuse. While I respect your foreign policy positions, I hate how you divided the country. I don’t need or want your help. You do not have the ability to pull US together. You may even win the next election. But your generation’s time is running out. Tell your son to stop tweeting about me. Your whole family knows nothing about US or our sacrifices. I could never work with you. I’d rather sit in jail and be released with a dishonorable than make compromises in my beliefs.
He got his wish to sit in jail — but he kept the support from Trump, too.
The Scheller saga illustrates a crucial point: The military is not on our side. Most would agree on this, but would stipulate that the enlisted men and junior officers are still among the good guys. Increasingly, that’s not true. The military — from generals on down to privates — are hostile to the historic American nation and work against its interests. There are plenty of exceptions, and we all know vets who are 100% solid guys and solid on the issues. But they seem to be the exceptions.
You can buy Greg Johnson’s The Year America Died here.
On face value, Scheller appears to be one of the good guys. He looks like an all-American chad who had the courage to face down his terrible commanders. But looking closely at his record, he appears to in fact be no more than an unhinged loyalist to the Empire who couldn’t believe his commanders followed their orders to leave Afghanistan. He even hates Trump for “dividing America,” a common trope among goofy centrists and Never Trumpers. And his reference to the fact that Trump’s “generation’s time is running out” could be a possible allusion to the Great Replacement knocking aside old white people. The new generation comes in every color and proudly serves in the Marines, after all! By every metric that matters, Scheller is no different from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley.
We all know that those in senior command are terrible, so I won’t belabor that point. What needs to be understood, however, is how the enlisted men and junior officers are on the same page as their woke commanders.
In one of the few cases of a senior general doing anything good, Major General Christopher Donahue, commander of the 82nd Airborne, ordered his troops to clear out a transport plane of several Afghan migrants so they could have room for a war trophy vehicle that had been captured from the Taliban. That seems like a much better use of military resources than yet more Afghan migrants coming to the US — but not to his troops. Several of his subordinates ratted Donahue out to the conservative media. They claimed the rank and file were appalled that the general valued the war trophy more than bringing unvetted Afghans to American shores.
Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident. Veterans were heavily involved in advocating for mass Afghan resettlement. In fact, they took the lead on this. Sixteen veterans groups signed a letter calling on Biden to evacuate all Afghan “allies” from the country. “Embedded in our service is an ethos to leave no one behind,” said Chris Purdy, Program Manager of Veterans for American Ideals. The New Yorker published a long profile of some of the veterans working day and night to flood America with Afghans. One of the main figures it highlights is Matt Zeller, a vet and former CIA spook. Counter-Currents readers may remember him from an earlier article where he became a conservative hero for criticizing Biden for not doing enough to extract tens of thousands of Afghans. Zeller served as the poster boy for this effort. In an interview, he said that Stephen Miller should be tried for war crimes for opposing Afghan resettlement. This opinion is, sadly, not atypical for these vets.
While many on the Right believe most of the troops back Right-wing candidates, the numbers tell a different story. A Military Times poll before the 2020 election found that more active duty service members preferred Biden over Trump, at 41.3% to 37.4%. Nearly half of serving troops said that they had an unfavorable opinion of the then-President. At the start of 2020, Bernie Sanders garnered the most military donations of any candidate, including Trump. In the 2020 general election, only those who listed the Marines and the US military as their employer gave more to Republicans than to Democrats. Donors who listed the Army or Air Force were split between the two candidates, while those who listed the Department of Defense or Navy donated overwhelmingly to Biden.
The military’s current demographics may explain this. It’s becoming increasingly less white, with 43% of active duty members being non-white today. Many of its white service members also marry outside their own people. Mixed-race marriages are far higher among servicemen than it is in the civilian population. An example of this is Rylee McCollum. McCollum was one of the 13 soldiers killed in the terrorist bombing at Kabul Airport on August 26. His black wife gave birth to their child a few weeks after his death.
The military is an environment that emphasizes diversity. Young men are placed alongside people of every race and given the latest in critical race theory training. It’s unsurprising that this is having a significant effect. And the military is doubling down on diversity efforts under President Biden.
The impact of the woke ideology on ordinary troops can be discerned in a recent Twitter brawl involving conservative Josiah Lippincott, a former Marine officer. Lippincott mocked General Milley’s physique, which drew the full ire of military Twitter. Male soldiers who proudly announce that they are sexual assault survivors ripped into Lippincott for daring to attack a general. Even some otherwise Right-leaning vets joined in the pile-on.
Many troops, regardless of their politics, will stand up for their corrupt leaders. Many of them ultimately believe in the “Globalist American Empire,” because they fought for it. Many of them become the biggest regime loyalists out of this misplaced faith. Of course, there are also many vets see through the bullshit and strongly oppose the Empire, but they’re not the ones who are turned into media darlings or run veterans’ groups. It’s the regime loyalists who get those roles.
That’s why it’s so important for the American Right to stop worshipping the troops. Stop turning nuts like Stu Scheller into heroes. Stop nodding along as some Marine screams for more Afghans and more wars. Stop telling some pen-pusher in uniform, “Thank you for your service.” This doesn’t mean that you should hate the troops; just be realistic about them. They serve the regime that hates you, and will likely use their weapons and skills against you if ordered to do so. That doesn’t deserve a salute.
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26 comments
Jeez, and Rylee was a nice looking guy, could have had the pick of the litter, yet he marries a black girl. I’ve seen this happening among young people around me, and from my vantage it seems that the system promises rewards to white guys who marry outside their race. I could give detailed examples, but it would reveal too much about me, I suppose. These white guys are responding to peer pressure in their choices of spouse, I do believe.
Because they are loathsome wiggers, white men do not get any benefit for dating out, in fact, it is viewed as “neo-colonialism”.
The system doesn’t want white men cucking non-white men even if it ultimately harms whites.
It is a brave statement – at last. And falls along with the “blue lives matter” crowd, which is of the same mindset. The U.S. Military has been in the service of the globalists and had WOKE agenda way before the term was coined. They’ve for decades prided themselves in “diversity and inclusivity.” Also, it has been an economic refuge for the poor, especially in between the world wars, and had lifted generations of young people from the rural areas out of poverty. So even more than the combat feat and sacrifices military has a special place in the American psyche, and it will be hard to change that. The “establishment conservatives” and conservative talking heads worship the “blue lives” and the U.S. Military. After all, they all believe in projecting American military power across the globe, and in fighting overseas wars to “protect our freedom”. Even though it’s obvious the bigger threat to their capitalism and “freedom” comes from the inside.
Jews are half as likely to die in combat, and Scottish soldiers who died in WWII had a higher average IQ than those who didn’t. Anything that’s high IQ and patently unJewish is probably noble. Therefore, I hold much respect for all KIA. Hats off to them.
Granted, our modern military is a multiracial mercenary force to protect the rich who run America, who are a consortium of mostly white and Jew boomers, but in actuality, the US’s real defense is its nukes, but they are of no use because we let browns invade us wily nily. Therefore, the modern non-combatant military is mostly welfare for people who like pushups. They probably have below average IQ too.
Nevertheless, white advocates should join the military (fyi, the air force is the smartest wing on average) because we need combat skills in case a racial civil war ever breaks out. It’s also one of the few places a man can get a job in the increasingly feminized workforce. It’s a do-nothing multiracial mercenary force, but it’s cooler than being a mall cop as women having an IQ standard deviation below yours get office jobs because they smile more often.
Regarding the war in Afghanistan, it backfired because it only served to make the non-white ethnic groups there feel stressed by outside forces, cooperate more, and thus breed faster. Similarly war-torn Iraqis and the Palestinians also have been breeding like rabbits. Basically, the US only fights/sponsors fighting in third world dumps of countries, and the side effect is the resident low IQ populations multiply faster.
I would support an all-white force dominating the globe to effect population control in getting dumb browns to reduce their fertility below replacement level and smart whites to increase it above replacement level. Can somebody invent some superior weaponry to be shared only among this force? That’ll be the trick.
This is crazy.
The situation or the comment?
Although I’m confident no sane, pro-White male with any intelligence will find anything remotely appealing (or believable) in your above recruitment propaganda, you make a very, very unconvincing case for serving an anti-White behemoth that considers half its population “terrorists”.
Signing up for a 2, 3 or 4 year hitch, learning about weapons and combat operations, as well as some other technical skill, without giving in to the “diversity” nonsense, can be a good thing for a young man. For a White suburban kid, it will help open his eyes to the disaster of affirmative action and the hatred of Whites by blacks. There are other ways to gain this experience, but the military isn’t the worst. I’d advise any young man to wait until after the long term effects of the forced covid shot are better known, however.
Well, in this guy’s defense, neither Trump nor his gormless sons know shit from shinola when it comes to military matters, so they shouldn’t opine on them.
Heh heh. So true, so true.
In short: Join the US army and fight wars for the Israel lobby.
Reminds me a little of Dave Chappelle. I like Jef Costello, but after Chappelles previous special, lightly mocking the absurd trans phenomenon, he (along with mainstream conservatives) was all praise. Even though that special contained huge truckloads of anti-white rhetoric. I haven’t and don’t plan to watch his latest, but I see the conservatives are seeing this as a major cultural victory as well. And its probably much tamer than the special three years ago, which was still 85% regime approved propaganda.
Like the military or police, we are so desperate for allies it can cloud our judgement about the current state of affairs. No cope. No compromise.
Well said. I don’t watch tv and wouldn’t watch Chappelle, but I’ve seen all those glowing reviews by Joe and Jane Normal. When merely refusing to publicly advocate for a mentally-ill sexual degenerate is transgressive, blacks like Chappelle or Nikki Minaj are suddenly lionized by Whites desperate for popular approval. Just because a black is anti-trannie or anti-vax does not make him any less anti-White. I’m continually dismayed by just how many on the DR still feel the need for the POX validation. Suddenly the tiniest bit of common sense or hesitancy to believe the narrative causes an outpouring of Whites celebrating a non-White as ‘based’ and a putative ally. Weakness – and hopium. I agree, no cope and no compromise.
Exactly Chappelle is flagrantly anti-white, he made light of whites affected by the opioid crisis once. He walked away from a show of his once because he thought made fun of the poor negroes too much.
He pretty much supports almost every other system narrative, makes appeals to the supposed “oppression” of black men etc… He a typical ethnocentric non-white.
Well said (I’ve never seen anything by Chappelle). Always uphold truth. This does not mean failing to note nuances, or instances when a minority really seems to be racially honorable viz whites (eg, Clarence Thomas; not perfect, I’m sure, but probably the best current Justice). Never downplay reality in order to be ingratiating.
WNs should look at the military as a future enemy that needs to be radically downsized. A WN President could use military spending reduction offers as a way to get Democrat votes for other priorities. One thing is for sure: the US budget and National Debt are not sustainable. Cuts (or serious inflation, as the Debt is inflated away) will be coming.
I was noticing talk about Chapelle earlier in the week. I never hold out much hope for these celebrities–they live in a separate plane of reality from the average person, so their opinions are taken with a huge grain of salt.
On the Lt Col, I did see his second video where he said “tear the whole system down”, and it was pretty clear that he wasn’t talking about the Cathedral. The guy just seemed like an average political centrist (the moronic ostrich types) who bury their head in the sand and say they’re drinking water; he would have been more contemplative had he been red-pilled and that was what set it off for me–also, NEVER talk about financial donations in a serious video statement–that will set off alarm bells from Washington to Siberia.
A close family member of mine is going into the Navy, I just hope he can survive under the weight of the regime. His job will be very necessary in the future, so I hope he can get in and get out without being dishonorably discharged.
As the title says; “Stop Worshiping the Troops”. Good advice for us Dissidents.
Mr. Hampton,
Your article was insightful and interesting and I agreed with almost all of it.
I do have one caveat, however. I seem to remember that Ron Paul got the majority of the military vote in either the 2008 or 2012 primaries. Am I wrong about this? And, if I am right, then things must have changed a lot between 2012 and now. I would think that everyone on CC would have supported Ron Paul in those elections.
Let’s not give up on the troops, not yet. There are considerable numbers of service members who would support National Populism if they were correctly approached. 37% pro-Trump is still a sizable number, and there are potentially more who would rally behind a patriotic movement. And once the tide of opinion shifts, more will jump on the bandwagon.
The Regime is alienating increasing number of service members with vaccine requirements, lefty political indoctrination, and the recent debacle in Afghanistan. There is also a lot of personnel who object to the 2020 leftist violence and destruction of military monuments and are looking for some leadership here. If a Lt Colonel is willing to break with the Regime then more people will follow, and potentially of higher rank. Might also look at retirees who are not obsessed with “doing their 20.”
The same point can be made about law enforcement. The Dissident Right does not need to make more enemies than it has now by provoking these people. As Frederick the Great once observed, each troop you recruit also means one less for the foe.
It would be useful to have articles and postings by ex-service members and former law enforcement about how to approach this situation.
The ”tooth to tail” ratio really contributes to this. Even within the same branch, there can be massive differences between different jobs. Warfighters and those who support them by doing something important are outnumbered by fluffy jobs. An idiot burger flipper or paper shuffler is not the same as artillery or military intelligence, but there was always a push to level everyone down to the same importance, which I found insulting.
Another problem is that LtCol Scheller and many others live in a bubble world. They usually live in safe, orderly housing on base or close by in military dominated communities. Their kids go to safe schools which have other military kids. In many ways, too many troops of all ranks live in a protected bubble like liberal college students and professors. They have no real experience of diversity or political polarization.
I hope the Right understands that anyone who re/enlisted after J6 is an imbecile. Even during Trump’s presidency, there was a growing trend of the most idealistic guys only doing one term. Thankfully, this means that ZOG has been hemorrhaging talent long before the coup.
I think if civilians knew the true extent of the endemic physical fitness problems the military has that that alone would chill some of the undiscerning troop worship.
Veterans were heavily involved in advocating for mass Afghan resettlement.
I’d rather we’d concentrated on bringing home the sixty bomb-sniffing dogs and a similar number of working dogs left behind. Dogs stay loyal to their masters.
It’s not over until the last pooch comes home.
Here, here!! Bring our canines home — NOW.
As a WN and Isolationist, I could see that things were not going to go well in 2001 when people were sporting not one, not two, but several plastic American flags on their lawns.
In some ways I didn’t mind the “Support the Troops” talk. It hadn’t been but a generation before that the troops were hated tools of the system and people were protesting the Draft. I don’t really see the the troops as the problem. They don’t bring on the wars.
I am too young to have personally experienced the Draft, but I was in the Army during the latter throws of the Cold War and remember fondly the times when almost all male citizens and many women had military experience. That this situation has reversed, is part of the reason that we keep getting sucked into these Forever Wars.
Military service is an elemental part of statecraft and a basic obligation of citizenship. This is not idolizing anybody.
I find it rather appalling that we keep electing Presidents more experienced with teleprompters than rifle ranges.
Military historian and analyst Prof. Andrew J.Bacevich, whose son was killed fighting in Iraq in 2007, has long argued that this disconnect between Citizens and Soldiers is a fundamental problem with the stumbling colossus that has become the American Empire.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Bacevich
Prof. Bacevich is a retired U.S. Army colonel himself, and his retirement status is a key feature in my estimation of his military analysis, which is unusually Isolationist.
I don’t understand what compels “whistleblowers” like Lt. Col. Scheller to grace us with their wisdom. Scheller is supposed to be serving not sermonizing.
With the exception of general officers ─ whose jobs are political by nature ─ a field grade officer’s job is to be a soldier, and he can grace us with his political advice all he likes once he is no longer on active duty. A company man, it looks like to me, what Scheller looks like is some “Woke” jarhead trying to get some media attention. No thanks.
Navy Commander George Lincoln Rockwell was kicked out of the service after 19 1/2 years for his political activism, a spiteful scuttling of his well-earned military retirement.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Lincoln_Rockwell
Perhaps Commander Rockwell should have waited until he had fully retired from the naval reserves before ditching the Buckleyite “Kosher” Conservatism for something more robust like founding the American Nazi Party.
Rockwell was a student of commercial art and marketing, and he was a shrewd political analyst who probably should have known better.
As a grizzled WWII veteran like many others, Cdr. Rockwell no doubt had hope and faith in the American institutions of 1959, so he should not be judged too harshly for the mistake of throwing away his pension prematurely. They don’t make ’em like that anymore.
We have a different set of problems today. With Trannies in the Boy Scouts, our young men needn’t worry about burning draft cards ─ just maybe not burning enough calories. After the debacle of decades of Forever Wars, the common WN impression is that the U.S. military is an institution that can no longer be saved.
My Army experience is from 40 years ago, but I find that proposition hard to believe.
Yes, we had Race Relations indoctrination in those days too. They were particularly worried about pasty-faced White kids from Idaho adapting to Negrified places like Georgia.
So in a Kafkaesque scene that could have been written by Orwell, or a theatrical depiction of the USS Pueblo crew in a North Korean propaganda dungeon, all us privates were paraded before a bevy of stern-faced Negroes guarding the doors and then we sat at attention in a neat throng before some colorful brother. His Majesty asked us who was against inter-racial marriage.
Hmmm, coincidentally I had finished reading Rockwell not too long before. There is no reason to fear honesty.
I immediately stood up. Two rednecks from Arkansas did likewise. A mulatto from New Orleans stood. And the rest of the class just sat and watched in befuddled fear.
The Darkie Commandant eyed the standing dissenters and called us forward. Then, rather oddly, he remarked that Mormons had just a couple of years before allowed the ordination of African Blacks to their lay priesthood.
So I was singled out and asked why I did not believe in race-mixing by the Black inquisitor. Having never before seen nice-looking White women cavorting with handsy Blacks at the massive Atlanta airport not too long before, without hesitation I said that the races “had different cultures, that’s why. It makes no sense.”
I look back on it as a (very) small moment of “speaking truth to power.”
Different cultures? So Race matters? Hmmm, the Black official had to agree with that. His demeanor changed as if somebody said the safe word, and I don’t think he perceived a glint of hillbilly hatred from this silly White boy from Idaho.
They wrapped up the session with some upbeat talk about our new Army careers, that we would come into contact with many different cultures, etc. The White officers were brought back in and we were reminded that we were all wearing a green uniform, and that Uncle Sambo was training us with great trust with great confidence.
I won’t stay silent for CRT training today either. A lot of people scoff when citizens stand up to School Boards and so forth too. Sure, it is not tossing real hand grenades, but it is not LARPing either. I think these small steps are enormously important ─ and every bit rebuilds our confidence as White people.
Standing up for what is right always sets a good example.
I realize that three or four decades ago is time for a lot of institutional change, and most of it was not for the better. But in spite of breaking its back on endless no-win wars, is the military really a lost cause?
Whether that’s a Yes or a No, I don’t think these institutions can be ignored.
I was in the Army Signal Corps in the Reagan years. You did not get in to that club with mediocre test scores. Unless your military occupational specialty (MOS) was telephone pole-climber, there were few Blacks. Even the administrators were higher-tier Negroes. Under President Jimmy Carter, if I remember correctly, the Civil Service dropped exams because they discriminated against stupid people and Blacks. Surely the military still uses the vocational aptitude battery? If so, make use of it.
I have known many people who made better choices in their military careers than just joining the Guard to shoot cool stuff and to become a standard Grunt. For example, unless you are prior-service and are just rounding out your time, joining the National Guard is just a backdoor Draft. No wonder people are disillusioned with their military service careers.
I would bring back the Draft in a minute if there were a way to limit the undeclared wars and imperial campaigns. If enlistment is a consideration for you, do some noodling on the matter to take advantage of the vocational training the government offers and enlist with some due care.
This is an opportunity to let the government finance your gaining necessary skills that would be hard to acquire or afford on your own ─ air traffic controller, machinist, etc. I don’t know what they offer today, but it is worth a look. It used to be that nearly all technocrats got their start in the military.
Another crucial point beyond being able to finance post-secondary training, there are not many institutions left today where LEADERSHIP is actually taught and learned. In my experience, the best officers had once been non-commissioned officers, Boy Scouts, air patrol cadets, etc.
This kind of mentorship is very important because WN will have to form cadres that can be called upon to take the reins, fill the voids, and to seize opportunities as they arise. The old blood has to be replaced by the new, and I hope that they can.
Reflecting on the recent past, Prof. Bacevich has A Modest Proposal for the reform of the U.S. military: A PURGE.
Fire all of the hidebound political generals and develop the colonels. Someone has to be accountable for the dearth of victories promised from the endless questionable engagements. We are definitely lacking in accountability.
🙂
I always admired the banana repubics when the military had enough nonsense from the politicians they were put against the wall. America,is fast becoming a banana republic but our military is clueless and gutless.They are not worth the admiration and loyality of american folk.
Yeah, it is a Banana Republic because rioters and looters are not prosecuted by officials, whereas White people who act in self-defense ─ or White police officers who act against Negro criminals in accordance with the law ─ are severely punished.
I agree that the U.S. Military is Clueless and Gutless.
The main reason is that the volunteer military is not representative of the citizens of the nation. Some working class Whites do join and are likely to end up fighting in campaigns, but even so, they do not represent a broad spectrum of capable White citizens. In times past, the middle class and even the scions of the plutocracy like JFK and his elder brother served in the armed forces and in combat, and were sometimes killed in action.
I agree that the personnel are not worth the admiration and loyalty of the American folk. The reverence towards them is completely manufactured by the media as sort of gratitude or guilt for their voluntary service, as if we were talking about the hype surrounding sportsball players.
My favorite example is Pat Tillman, who went to ASU on a football scholarship and then gave up his pro-ball career with the Arizona Cardinals to join the Army in 2002 to fight after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
In 2004, Tillman was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan consistent with an M-16 at thirty feet away.
The Army posthumously promoted Tillman from Specialist (E-4) to Corporal (E-4) just to make him a junior-NCO, which makes no sense unless he is commanding a fire team in the sky. They might as well have made him a Sergeant or a Kentucky Colonel.
The Army also posthumously gave Tillman a Silver Star whilst trying to cover up the friendly-fire cause of his death.
Saint Tillman’s ghost walks on water and the Arizona side of the new bridge at the Hoover Dam is named after him. I can’t speak for combat veterans since I am not one of them, but with every mention in the media, this guy gives me the creeps.
🙂
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