Dutch Furious As Retired US General Blames Gay Soldiers For Srebrenica Massacre

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — The Dutch prime minister Friday denounced as "irresponsible" a claim by a retired U.S. general that gay Dutch soldiers were partly to blame for allowing Europe's worst massacre since World War II.

Dutch officials, from the Cabinet to the military, were outraged by retired Gen. John Sheehan's remarks at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., on Thursday.

Sheehan claimed that Dutch military leaders had called the presence of gay soldiers in the army "part of the problem" that allowed Serb forces to overrun the Srebrenica enclave in Bosnia in July 1995 and kill some 8,000 Muslim men.

Dutch troops were serving in the undermanned U.N. peacekeeping force in Srebrenica when they were overrun by heavily armed Serb forces, who went on to turn the surrounding countryside into killing fields littered with mass graves.

Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende called Sheehan's comments irresponsible and said at his weekly news conference that "these remarks should never have been made."

"Toward Dutch troops – homosexual or heterosexual – it is way off the mark to talk like that about people and the work they do under very difficult circumstances," he said.

Sheehan, a former NATO commander who retired from the military 1997, was speaking in opposition to a proposal to allow gays to serve openly in the U.S. military.

Balkenende said he would not take up the issue with President Barack Obama because Sheehan is already retired.

Defense Minister Eimert van Middelkoop called Sheehan's claim "damaging" and not worthy of a soldier. "I don't want to waste any more words on it," he said.

Gen. Henk van den Breemen, Dutch chief of staff at the time of the Srebrenica genocide, called Sheehan's comments "total nonsense" and denied ever having suggested gays in the army might have played a role in the Srebrenica massacre.

The Netherlands has a long history of accepting homosexuality, and gays have long been welcome in the country's armed forces – which also allow labor unions.

The leader of one such union, Jan Kleian, was incensed by Sheehan's comments.

"The man is crazy," he told Dutch radio. "It sounds hard, but I can't put it any other way."

Comments

[Y2KCockroach]

07:05 PM on 03/21/2010

If in fact Sheehan lied to Congress, then he is no patriot. That is the most charitable conclusion that I can draw in the circumstances.

[CarmanK]

02:13 PM on 03/21/2010

As well they should be!! It is an insult for the General to testify in front of the whole world to a "lie" in order to make a point. It is just viral, all the lying, crude, rude and unconscienable behavior by the Repugs, Tea Baggers and now a US General. No wonder the American people are skeptical. But, I do believe that all the lies will catch up with the liars and a day of accountability will occur. Even Fox will have its day!! It is time for the FCC to examine the foreign ownership creep that is occurring at the NewCorp organization and it is time for a standard of information to be advanced. The outright lying cannot go unexposed. Equal time, equal response-whatever it takes. But this health care debate has clearly demonstrated the power of the media in the public discourse and there has to be some standard of "truth" on the public airwaves.

[ILuvBubbles]

12:58 PM on 03/21/2010

Gay soldiers are the real patriots. How many of us have NEVER served?! This is akin to the black soldiers fighting America's wars since the inception of the buffalo soldiers.

[hallowellboy]

09:48 AM on 03/21/2010

I understand Sheehan is a toe tapper. Just sayin'.

[atti]

11:38 AM on 03/21/2010

Agreed. Seems as though he could've been a subject of focus in HBO's documentary "Outraged".

[Paulo1]

11:39 PM on 03/20/2010

I would like to have a rather pointed conversation with this General. I have even learned a few words of Dutch from a friend to help "explain" things to him. I just love swearing in another language, it increases the options.

[S1m0n]

08:09 PM on 03/20/2010

Sheehan's calumny demands no more than a two-word response, half of which is "you!"

[MyFatCat]

10:05 PM on 03/20/2010

I guess that's what he's afraid of.

[Zen0469]

07:16 PM on 03/20/2010

If Mr. Sheehan does not have the intelligence to listen to the Commander in Chief, he should keep his mouth firmly shut.

[mootown]

06:13 PM on 03/20/2010

That guy looked like he would begin drooling any second. They must have rousted him out of his nursing home, or he is just a typical GNOPer, drooling h@te for anyone unlike himself. Poor fellow. He needs a depends change.

[xlntcat]

06:28 PM on 03/20/2010

He was definitely a bigoted homophobe, but even as he was testifing he became increaslingly less believable. He is now a civilian who took an oath to give truthful testimony which no one in the room believed had happened by the time it was over. If we are a nation of laws and we refuse to enforce said laws or enforce them helter-skelter, then we aren't a nation of laws. Why isn't he being charged with perjuryl.

[atti]

11:40 AM on 03/21/2010

Those bigoted homophobes are often in the closet and trying to distract attentionfrom themselves.

[hibeam]

05:46 PM on 03/20/2010

When will someone discuss the contribution of the Muslim countries in Yugoslavia? NATO went in there and did all the heavy lifting to protect the Muslim victims. And how much credit does NATO get. Zero. How much help did NATO get from Muslim countries? Zero. How much coverage does this get? Zero.

[greatscot]

06:12 PM on 03/20/2010

This was initially a NATO operation. Later it was a U.N. deal. There may have been some Turkish troops there as part of NATO forces, but can't say for sure. The U.S. led the U.N. effort and they were very careful about who went into the former Yugoslavia because of the Muslim/Serb conflict and the Kosovo province starting to erupt. Also Russia had made it plain it would not put up with a complete rout of the Serbs, so bringing in Muslim troops, except Turkish, who are patently secular, was probably not a possibility.

[SPQR1775]

05:33 PM on 03/20/2010

what he intended to do was to in effect say allowig gays in the military will undemine missions.....he failed. I am in the Army in Iraq, and yes they are GAY Soldiers, everyone know who they are, and some we don't know, nor do we car. They get the job done and that is all that matters. It is the GOP humophobs who are closet gays, and it is easy to tell...I suspect this General will soon be called outas himsel gay!

[greatscot]

05:14 PM on 03/20/2010

The Dutch were there as a tripwire. They had small arms and just the ammo they carried. When the wire was tripped, they called for airstrikes and reinforcements. They got nothing. There were discussions between Britain & France about a joint parachute drop, but Tony Blair was reticent, so nothing was done. The Dutch were left to do what they could, which was very little. They tried rounding up the population and putting them in buildings with a few Dutch troops guarding outside, but they were terribly under-manned and were swarmed by Serbian troops. Getting ammo to the Dutch was mostly done by the British who had to drive through "sniper alley" to do it. They would do it only with armored vehicles and refused to use "thin skinned" trucks. The Dutch, for some reason had to try to re-supply their other needs without armor. It was a disaster, badly planned, ignoring the worst scenario, which happened, and 8,000 muslim men and boys are dead.

And now along comes an American general, obviously of the GOP persuasion to blind-side an ally, while pushing his right-wing domestic agenda. I hope one of these Dutch soldiers catches up with Mr. John Sheehan one of these days for a little mano-a-mano tete-a-tete!

[Jim Killingsworth]

06:59 PM on 03/20/2010

And I hope that Dutch soldier is gay and shows this machismo a**hole that gays can fight as well as straights.

[quindy]

09:06 PM on 03/20/2010

Fanned.

[zbowling]

07:25 PM on 03/20/2010

Were you there?

[LeLoup]

12:08 AM on 03/21/2010

Some people can read, and ask intelligent questions.
You obviously are not among these.

[MJinCanada]

01:39 AM on 03/22/2010

About 600 Dutch troops trying to protect thousands of civilians, surrounded by thousands of Serbs with heavy artillery. It's well documented.

[totalliberal]

04:18 PM on 03/20/2010

Most officers join the military so they can shower together. They have fun lathering each other up and toweling each other off.. That's why they don't want 'Gay' men around spoiling their fun.

[OneTop]

04:06 PM on 03/20/2010

I suppose this is the same reason behind the US army over and over again killing women, children, civilians and wedding parties with errand drone attacks?

[OneTop]

04:27 PM on 03/20/2010

strike "errand"
s/b
errant
:)

[AverageCanadianGuy]

05:45 PM on 03/20/2010

Oh yes the Americans kill women and children on purpose ...thats an idiotic statement... Always easy to sit on the fringe isn't it.... The terrorist threat is not some illusion .... Maybe we can fix it with camp fire songs... I am very anti Bush ... so don't play the left -right card ....

[xlntcat]

06:32 PM on 03/20/2010

Well, you sure have the rightwing fearmongering and talking points down. The greatest threat to this nation is our failed education system.

[Jim Killingsworth]

07:07 PM on 03/20/2010

As an American combat veteran I have to reluctantly say that sometimes American soldiers aren't always the good guys. I'm not saying at all those drone pilots sitting in the desert outside of Las Vegas are deliberately targeting civilians. But I don't think they can sit in an air conditioned building half a world away watching a TV screen with joysticks in their hands and fully comprehend the human impact of their actions. Especially if their wives have dinner already on the table waiting for them.

[BlueDog1]

02:23 PM on 03/20/2010

I also heard that a mess hall cook from a Army unit stationed in Germany, heard from French solders had they had better food they would not have lost Dien Bien Phu to the Vietnamese.

Do the story have legs?

This guy is a sleeper for McCain who is blocking this change since he is doing one of his old person flip flops.

[Darcy24]

02:22 PM on 03/20/2010

I guess Republicans are so used to being able to tell outrageous lies in America, and never be called out for it, that Sheehan thought he could tell outrageous lies about the military of a foreign country, and somehow never be called out for it.

If a Dutch general insulted American troups, everybody in America would be outraged. So why did Sheehan think he could make remarks like this about a foreign army, and nobody in the the Netherlands would care, or protest? Dumb, dumb, dumb.