Gay Dutch Genocidaires: A Warning From the Recent Past

Not much one can say in response to this Joseph Heller-like exercise in military leadership. In front of a Senate committee looking into "don't ask, don't tell," former NATO commander Gen. John Sheehan told a baffled Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) that the massacre in Srebrenica was allowed to happen because the soldiers defending the town were too Dutch and too gay. The Telegraph reports:

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."

Reason on gays in the military.