Kiwirob wrote:that cowardly POS from the Netherlands is still alive and not behind bars. Colonel Thomas Jakob Peter Karremans was a coward, an ineffectual leader and is as responsible for the deaths of those 8373 men and boys as Mladic.
I do not think that is
entirely fair. Dutchbat, of which Karremans was the commander, was just a small group of lightly armed soldiers. From an arms point of view, little more then a large SWAT team. They had no chance against the heavily armed Serbs.
Karremans requested air support four times. The first two times the Dutch general staff did not pass on the request to NATO HQ. Reason being that, while the situation was threatening, there was at that time no actual fighting yet. The third request for air support was passed on to NATO HQ, but rejected by French general Janvier. The fourth request was finally approved, but by that time the F-16s were already back on the ground for refueling, as instructed by Nicolai (CoS, NL).
When airstrikes were finally made, Srebrenica had already been overrun. The Dutch minister of defence (Voorhoeve) then blocked further bombings to avoid repercussions against dutchbat and civilians.
From what I can see, the Dutch military does not exactly have clean hands. But please put the blame at those who deserve it, the high ranking officers from NL as well as other NATO countries that where further up the chain of command. Also, add in politicians for approving to send such lightly armed soldiers into a warzone to begin with.