At Senate “Don’t ask, don’t tell” hearings two weeks ago, Gen. John Sheehan was the only witness that tried to give an example of just how gays in the military could lead to disaster. Others just used the same old fear of sharing showers.
- Gen. John Sheehan
The general cited a conversation he had with a Dutch military commander who blamed gays among the Dutch troops for the massacre at Srebrenica during the Bosnian War.
The Dutch military was outraged. Pink Army, a Dutch gay military group, threatened to sue him for slander. The Dutch prime minister called the remark “disgraceful.” The Dutch general he claimed to have quoted called the statement “complete nonsense.”
Now Sheehan has apologized for those remarks and Pink Army has dropped its charges.
But Sheehan’s Senate testimony stands. He has not been called back to recant his fictional account of the events so that anti-gay Senators cannot use his lies as a reason to vote against the repeal of DADT. So far there have been no calls from Senate allies to charge Sheehan with perjury or contempt of Congress.
Our history is littered with a plethora of individuals who have set bad examples. The earliest ones I recall were Bob Haldeman, John Ehrlichman and John Dean, members of the Nixon administration. All were pardoned for their crimes, sending a message to the American people that if you are a high ranking governmental official, it’s okay to beg, borrow, plead, cheat, lie and/or steal to accomplish a mission. Consequently, that mindset is still prevalent today. Case in point: General Sheehan.
The Pink Army now that is gay.