Dutch Prime Minister Blasts Comments Made By Retired General Linking Gay Soldiers To Massacre

03/19/10-by Bridgette P. LaVictoire
Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende today expressed outrage and even downright fury over remarks made by retired Marine General John Sheehan yesterday. In strong language, Prime Minister Balkenende of the Netherlands condemned General Sheehan’s remarks stating that the general’s remarks “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.”

Yesterday, General Sheehan charged that the integration of gay and lesbian troops into the Dutch military following the Cold War undermined morale and unit cohesion and this, in turn, lead to the massacre at Srebrenica.

The major problem with General Sheehan’s remarks is that the Dutch began integration of gays and lesbians into their military forces in 1974, some seventeen years prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War.

However, it was General Henk van den Breemen who gave one of the most adamant statements regarding General Sheehan’s comments. General Breemen, who was the Dutch Chief of Staff at the time of Srebrenica, called the comments “total nonsense.” Given that it was General Breemen who was in charge of the Dutch military at the time, he also stated that it was emphatically not him who told General Sheehan that the gay and lesbian soldiers were responsible for the problems that the Dutch military faced at Srebrenica.

One Dutch labor union leader branded Sheehan crazy.

The comments from General Sheehan are creating quite a diplomatic incident at a time when President Barack Obama is facing rough relations with Israel. Several nations allow gays and lesbians to serve openly. Many of these nations are currently serving along side the United States in Afghanistan.

So far, Her Majesty Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands has not made any known public comment regarding these charges made by General Sheehan.