Posted on 03/19/2010 7:21:52 PM PDT by neverdem
A former American general blamed "open homosexuality" in the Dutch army for the failure to prevent the Srebrenica massacre in 1995.
The Dutch government condemned the comments by Gen John Sheehan, a former Nato commander and senior marine officer, as outrageous.
Gen Sheehan made the remarks at a Senate hearing where he argued against plans by President Barack Obama to end a ban on allowing gays to serve openly in the US military.
Gen Sheehan said that after the end of the Cold War, European militaries changed and concluded "there was no longer a need for an active combat capability."
He said this process included "open homosexuality" which resulted in "a focus on peacekeeping operations because they did not believe the Germans were going to attack again or the Soviets were coming back."
"The case in point that I'm referring to is when the Dutch were required to defend Srebrenica against the Serbs," he said, referring to the UN peacekeeping force deployed to protect Bosnian Muslim civilians.
"The battalion was understrength, poorly led, and the Serbs came into town, handcuffed the soldiers to the telephone polls, marched the Muslims off and executed them."
Carl Levin, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, pressed him to clarify his comments.
"Did the Dutch leaders tell you it (the fall of Srebrenica) was because there were gay soldiers there?" asked an incredulous Levin.
"Yes," Sheehan said and added: "They included that as part of the problem."
Gen Sheehan, who retired from the military in 1997, said he had been told that by the former chief of staff of the Dutch army.
Mr Levin vehemently rejected Sheehan's allegation, saying that drawing a connection between the massacre at Srebrenica and gays in the Dutch military was "totally off-target".
The failure of the Dutch...
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Whether true or not, what a wonderfully un-politically correct thing to say.
Europeans are such group-thinkers and lemmings for control, they become highly agitated when someone doesn’t parrot the socially-accepted dogma.
>> handcuffed the soldiers to the telephone polls,
Ugh, handcuffs...
General Sheehan did not blame the massacre on the homosexuals. The Dutch General he was referring to, did.
"The battalion was understrength, poorly led, and the Serbs came into town, handcuffed the soldiers to the telephone polls, marched the Muslims off and executed them." Carl Levin, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, pressed him to clarify his comments. "Did the Dutch leaders tell you it (the fall of Srebrenica) was because there were gay soldiers there?" asked an incredulous Levin. "Yes," Sheehan said and added: "They included that as part of the problem." Gen Sheehan, who retired from the military in 1997, said he had been told that by the former chief of staff of the Dutch army. Mr Levin vehemently rejected Sheehan's allegation...Like he was there.
haven’t even read it....pong
So the Dutch leaders were the ones who said this but Sheehan is the one blamed for making the connection between gays in the military and the massacre!
I don’t support repealing DADA, but this is silly. I didn’t read anywhere how the homo’s were responsible. It was the UN’s fault. ‘Peacekeepers’ who can’t keep the peace.
He’s not far off the mark. Europe is moribund and angry gay sex is all about watching porn and others get wasted. There is a lot of relevance to being self destructive gay and the “spectacle” of the death camps.
Wow, who would think that sissy men would act like cowards?
As long as there is a need for canon fodder, there will be a need for sissy men.
“Gen Sheehan said that after the end of the Cold War, European militaries changed and concluded “there was no longer a need for an active combat capability.” “
The efforts to extend “diversity” to include open homosexuality in the armed forces is just one more tactic in the left’s efforts to do to the military what they have already done to other institutions such as our public education, our manufacturing base, and our freedoms.
As Rush Limbaugh puts it “Armies are trained and equipped for kill people and break things” . There is no point in having an army if there is “no longer a need for an active combat capability”.
The American left is just as dismissive of the military as is the European socialists. Levin’s tirade that the “failure of the Dutch UN troops to fend off an attack by Bosnian Serb forces had “nothing to do with sexual orientation” is beside the point. The fact that in a time of war, the army is being used to advance some silly “gay rights” social agenda, is reckless and irresponsible.
Maybe if you read the article slower you you will see that what was inferred was that open homosexual activity in the military was ONE of the problems contributing to an impotent military that was disfunctioonal and subsequently handcuffed to telephone poles...
P.S. There are no "buts"...
Just reviewed your posts -you are on my leftist radar now-—
I just don’t openly believe everything I read that caters to my viewpoint. I’m starting to think Free Republic isn’t the place for me, so you can take me off your radar, freak.
Don't see how, Carl.
The general was describing -- as described to him by a professional Dutch officer of general rank -- a force thoroughly demoralized and deprofessionalized by a lack of focus in Dutch society and civilian leadership.
What part of that is hard to understand?
You can't run your military establishment with a "j' men fou" attitude* and expect results, in a crunch, different from the results the French got with the same attitude in 1940.
*common watchword in the French ranks in 1939-40; similar in meaning to the Vietnam-era "don't mean nuthin'!", "sounds like a personal problem to me", etc.
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