A fondness of handcuffs and openly gay "socialization" in lazy European armies led directly to the killing of thousands in Bosnia, a retired US general told a Senate committee. The Dutch aren't happy about it.

Testifying before the Senate in support of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, retired General John Sheehan said the end of the Cold War made Europeans even lazier than they already were, and that they let the Serbs walk all over them in Srebrenica because the Dutch allowed gays in the army:

"The [Dutch] battalion was under-strength, poorly led, and the Serbs came into town, handcuffed the soldiers to the telephone poles, marched the Muslims off, and executed them. That was the largest massacre in Europe since World War II."

The Dutch ambassador to the US, Renée Jones-Bos, had this to say:

"I heard the statements made by retired U.S. General Sheehan in today's public hearing in the Senate Armed Services Committee, in which he suggests a causal relationship between gays serving in the Dutch military forces and the massacre of Srebrenica. I couldn't disagree more."

[Image via]