Posted on 02/02/2006 7:09:58 PM PST by Panerai
The Netherlands will send an extra 1,400 troops to southern Afghanistan, after parliament ended six months of wrangling to approve the deployment.
Despite opposition from one of three parties in the ruling coalition, most MPs supported the plan, including those from the main opposition Labour party.
Nato, the UN and US have been urging the Netherlands to send the extra troops to bolster peacekeeping work.
Polls show that Dutch public opinion is almost equally divided on the issue.
Many Dutch MPs had demanded assurances that the country's troops would not have to work under US forces in Afghanistan.
Democrats-66, the smallest party in the coalition government, opposed the plan on the grounds that the Dutch forces would inherit hostility generated by a "failed" US mission in the region.
The existing Dutch contingent in Afghanistan, numbering just over 600 soldiers, operates under Nato command and is based in the capital, Kabul.
The new troops will be sent to the southern province of Uruzgan, where foreign soldiers have frequently clashed with militants linked to the ousted Taleban regime.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
God bless their little wooden shoes.
Dutch ping...
Tulips and windmills!! Sheesh--don't forget the windmills and tulips...and the dikes.
I think dikes are allowed to get married in the Dutch Army <;))
Oops. Not good timing since the entire Muslim world is boycotting Dutch goods and Karzai himself has condemned the Dutch cartoonists in very strong language. I wouldn't want to be those Dutch guys going to Afghanistan.
Didn't Van Gogh just get his head cut off in broad daylight? And they don't want to make the slammies mad? No wonder they get run over in every conflict. Path of least resistance.
Not the Dutch, the Danish.
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