Brody's Notes... Prime Minister & Dutch Government Angered By Retired USMC General's Comments

Jan Peter Balkenende  Dutch Prime Minister

Photo By Getty Images

By Brody Levesque (Washington DC) Mar 19 | Members of the government of the Netherlands are angered by claims made in a U. S. Senate hearing yesterday on the repeal of the 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy, by retired U. S. Marine General John Sheehan. Speaking to a group of journalists in a press conference today, the Dutch prime minister, Jan Peter Balkenende, said,

"The remarks were outrageous, wrong, and beneath contempt."

Other Dutch officials were also quick to respond. A spokesperson for the Dutch Defence Ministry released a statement regarding Sheehan's claims, saying that they were "absolute nonsense" and that gay Dutch soldiers often work alongside the U.S. military in its NATO mission in Afghanistan. 
Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen remarked that General Sheehan's statement was "the bizarre private opinion of someone without an official function."  
In Washington, Renee Jones-Bos, the Dutch ambassador to the United States, said there was no evidence that his claims were correct. 

During his testimony during the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, Sheehan told Senator's that the Srebrenica massacre, in which 400 Dutch soldiers serving as United Nations peace-keepers were outnumbered by heavily armed Bosnian Serb forces, and the resulting murder of 7,000 Muslim men and boys by the Serbs, was caused by the decision to include gays in the Netherlands' military. He cited that as the reason the force was unable to handle the Bosnian Serbs. Sheenan also said that was done to "socialise" the Dutch nation's armed forces after the Cold War. The Netherlands integrated gay soldiers into its military in 1974.

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Michigan, chairman of the committee, asked Sheehan whether Dutch leaders told him that gay soldiers weakened the military.

"Yes, they did," Sheehan said. "They included that as part of the problem."