Posted on 03/19/2010 1:41:23 PM PDT by Titus-Maximus
Dutch officials have reacted with anger and bemusement to the claim by a retired American general that their nation’s soldiers failed to prevent the Srebrenica massacre in 1995 in part because the presence of gay troops in the Dutch military had depleted the force’s morale.
On Thursday in Washington, John Sheehan, a former Marine general, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that he was against allowing openly gay men and women to serve in the American military, in part because of what he said was the example of European armed forces that had been changed “to reflect societies that they are theoretically paid to protect.” General Sheehan said that after the Dutch military allowed troops to be represented by unions and accepted “open homosexuality,” its fighting spirit was weakened. The retired general said:
That led to a force that was ill-equipped to go to war. The case in point that I’m referring to is when the Dutch were required to defend Srebrenica against the Serbs. The battalion was under-strength, poorly led, and the Serbs came into town, handcuffed the soldiers to the telephone poles, marched the Muslims off, and executed them. That was the largest massacre in Europe since World War II.
(Excerpt) Read more at thelede.blogs.nytimes.com ...
” marched the Muslims off, and executed them” well we at least had THAT going for us!
The whole Sebrenica story is disgraceful, but the story makes clear that the small, underarmed, unsupported Dutch contingent was helpless in the face of the surrounding Serb army, whether a few of them were gay or not.
The figure tossed out by the author quoted who stated that 7 - 10% of the Dutch Army is gay is the real jaw-dropper.
I spent a week as a guest of the Dutch army during a Winter Re forger, they were skinny, long haired, union guys with no military bearing.
Yeah, everyone knows that Gays make great warriors
I'm a former infantry officer. I've been to Srebrenica. I was stationed there in 2001 (actualy Kravica, 6 miles away, but I was in Srebrenica almost daily).
A pack of mildly irritated boy scouts armed with slingshots and bad intentions could have defended Srebrenica damn near forever.
The bottom line? DutchBat chose to let Srebrenica fall rather than put their butts on the line like SOLDIERS.
They deserve nothing but our contempt.
No secret that the French Foreign Legion tolerates gays ... otherwise, at least in its early history, who would want to serve in those remote desert posts in the Sahara?
so, the dutch army has more than the general population.
The Colonel in charge of their unit was gay. He was on a “60 minutes” piece a few years before.
To some extent, others were essentially professional soldiers from countries that lost the war (such as Germany after WWII) and signed up with the Legion Etrangere.
have the dutch in the face of danger ever in history displayed any spine?
16th century???
The gay aspect seems obvious: “the Serbs came into town, handcuffed the [Dutch] soldiers to the telephone poles . . .” Gay Dutch soldiers could have easily mistaken that as foreplay.
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