I WOULD SAY “REVEALS,” BUT TOMATO, TOMAHTO: Afghanistan debacle fuels general officer crisis.

The general officer U.S. military ranks have a big problem: The field grade officer and noncommissioned officer ranks have had enough of the double standards applied to leadership.

Top line: Whereas those out in the field are held strictly accountable for any failure, real or imagined, general officer ranks are rarely held accountable for far worse leadership failures that have a far greater impact.

One Marine lieutenant colonel just evinced this sentiment in a Facebook video post. Looking directly into the camera, Stuart Scheller stated , “I think what you believe in can only be defined by what you’re willing to risk. So, if I’m willing to risk my current battalion commander seat, my retirement, my family’s stability to say some of the things I want to say, I think it gives me some moral high ground to demand the same honesty, integrity, accountability from my senior leaders.”

Explaining his “demand for accountability,” Scheller referenced the double standards applied to field grade officers and general officers. He noted that if a “battalion commander has the simplest live-fire incident, [equal opportunity] complaint. Boom. Fired.” But Scheller pointed out that there has been no accountability for the litany of leadership failures that have defined the withdrawal from Afghanistan. He noted that “we have a secretary of defense that testified to Congress in May that the Afghan National Security Forces could withstand the Taliban advance. We have chairmen of the Joint Chiefs — who the [Marine Corps] commandant is a member of [the Joint Chiefs] — who’s supposed to advise on military policy. We have a Marine combatant commander. All of these people are supposed to advise.”

Scheller’s point is well-made. But the lieutenant colonel’s is just one example of the Pentagon’s double standards fetish.

The double standard isn’t just rank. Scheller was relieved. Vindman was promoted.

Meanwhile, just to note where we are: The highest civilian leaders have lost legitimacy. So has the military high command. And the colonels are angry. That’s seldom a recipe for good things.

Related: To Survive, We Must Fire Them All.