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Loading ...Dutch fuming at retired US general’s gays comment
03.19.2010 1:17pm EDT
(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.”
So let me see if I can summarize: A retired U.S. general, who has not been on active duty for over a dozen years, creates a complete fabrication about the service members of one of our allies, in order to convince the Senate that discrimination against our gay servicemembers is justified, thus creating an international incident with our ally. I bet the U.N. would love to have him as a peacekeeper!
It is time, as I have said on my blog, for Retired Marine General John Sheehan to lose his pension. He has defamed fine European armed forces and brought the US Armed Forces into disrepute.
Why is this guy even speaking in front of the Senate? 13 years is a very long time to be out of the picture. It is sad that the military can’t come up with a good reason so they have to engage a 13 year retired general to say such nasty things about gays and our allies. That is as bad as the crap NOM spreads.
I can only hope that the senate and Judge Walker can see thru the fear and ignorance and come to the right conclusion.
I’d like to find out if this creep retired voluntarily or was forced out because he is so crazy. I suspect the latter.
Too bad he couldn’t be in the shoes of the Dutch peacekeepers themselves.
The Dutch government has a right to be furious.
This is no way to treat loyal allies.
Unfortuantely, as a vet, it is my experience that Sheehan’s opinion that allowing lesbian and gays to serve openly would hurt military capability is widely held at the upper echelons of the militry power structure. Yes – the service chiefs are “on board” with repealing DADT in public, but that is because their jobs are dependent on the president and secretary of defense.
And while we have fundamentalist pastors preaching to the young people, who then join the military, this viewpoint is perpetuated.
It slays me that so many Americans take Sheehan’s brand of craziness at face value. Thanks to the Dutch for publicly calling it what it really is. Maybe there’s hope that one day the homophobes can at least be shamed into silence.
I’m glad he was so crazy, that should discredit all of his testimony.
Morgan–absolutely right, sir!
The Dutch were already likely to pull out of Afghanistan. Now this bonehead opens his mouth and slams a longtime ally, which also makes it that much more likely that US exposure in Afghanistan will become worse. More casualties. Sheehan–retired for thirteen years–has pretty much just told one of our allies to pound salt (or paint their toenails, as he would have it).
Somebody needs to make a formal apology to the Dutch government and people. NOW. Whether it’s the President somebody else, they need to apologize for allowing Sheehan to wander away from the assisted living facility.
There is one good thing to this. Bama-stu mentioned that there are a good number of high-ranking military staff who think gays will hurt the military. Most of them seem to have enough functioning brain cells that they don’t mouth off about it. Sheehan made such an ass of himself that anybody else following him who opposes gays in the military is going to come off as being another wackadoo. It isn’t easy to find somebody who can not only advance your point by making the opposition look bigoted and insane, but also manages to create an ill-timed and exceedingly embarrassing international incident in the process. And he did all this as a retiree! Oh–almost forgot–he did all this AND pretty much put American military personnel in Afghanistan in even greater danger. Isn’t that verging on treason (giving aid to the enemy)?
The homophobes wanted a spokesman with military cred. They got crud.
My thanks and hats off to our allies in the Netherlands for standing up to this dimwit and not allowing him to use you for undocumented hearsay.
Unless Sheehan or his handlers can produce documented proof that supports his claims, he’s just a barracks politition bumping his gums and lying to the American people to advance his own un-American agenda.
I am amazed that you all don’t seem to realize that gays and lesbians have contributed to all major tragedies in the past. There were gay people in the concentration camps in Germany – obviously Jews were only killed because of the gay presence. Rome collapsed which led to the dark ages only AFTER homosexual practices were rampant in the society! The Twin Towers had gay people in them – they were only bombed because of the homosexuals!!!
Wake up, people! Gays are causing the decline of the world!
Drewski,
Agreed. Now some of our allies may become reluctant to support us when we need it in far away lands. And that puts our men in danger. Sheehan needs to be barred from ever again testifying at armed services hearings as a disgrace and a disservice to our country. The world is watching us on TV and knows what is said about it.
Did General Sheehan make his statements under oath? If so, then it is clear he has perjured himself and he should be charged with that crime.
Furthermore, as the General should know, both Canada and the United Kingdom have allowed open and honest Lesbians and Gay Men to serve in their armed forces for some time– without any negative effects.
During World War II, General Dwight Eisenhower gave an order for Lesbians and Gay Men to be named with the idea of discharging them. When he discovered two of his key aides were Lesbians, he immediately gave a new order to disregard his previous order. The fact is that LGBT people have been members of the armed forces of the United States since there were United States Armed Forces. Unfortunately, laws have compelled them to lie in order to serve their country.
Are any of us truly surprised that something like this can be said. Should we not be more inured to the ignorance and even maliciousness of people that will stop at nothing to have their way. I begin to wonder where the fine line between evil and just plain old stupitidy. This man actually made it to the rank of General and led troops? Now that’s the scary part.
If the Dutch Prime Minister had any actual RESPECT for the service members that served, he would openly call for an APOLOGY.
Tolerance of this kind of intolerance is unacceptable, even from those we consider to be allies.