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DUTCH Foreign Minister Bernard Bot today questioned for the first time whether US-led troops should have invaded Iraq and said diplomacy might have achieved more. The Netherlands backed the US-led invasion of Iraq, but today Mr Bot was asked in parliament if the invasion was sensible. "That is a question you can legitimately ask, looking back, and it's possible that the answer will be that it wasn't sensible and that using diplomatic means we could have achieved more," Mr Bot said. Mr Bot later extended his remarks, telling Dutch television network NOS that he had been referring to the absence...

AMSTERDAM — The US government wants to discuss with The Hague what role the Dutch military could play during military conflicts and crisis situations over the next four years, the foreign affairs ministry has confirmed. The Netherlands is among a select group of allies that will be approached in the near future by Washington for closer military co-operation. It is the first time that the US government will contact allies outside the context of existing Nato links to determine future military strategy, newspaper 'De Volkskrant' reported on Monday. The Dutch embassy in Washington has also confirmed Washington's intentions, but the...

The Union flag is flying over a new stretch of Iraq. British troops have moved west of Basra to assume responsibility for the neighbouring province and in the process have more than doubled the area under direct British military control.Behind the move lies the erosion of President George W Bush's "coalition of the willing". The Dutch started pulling their troops out after the Jan 30 Iraqi election on the basis that the advent of democracy meant that their mission was accomplished. Last month the Queen's Dragoon Guards moved in to Muthanna province, 30,000 square miles of scrub and desert stretching...

The latest news coming from our friends in the Netherlands about sending a commando force to Afghanistan to work alongside U.S. and British soldiers is very good news. I understand the Netherlands is not going to stomp out terrorism on its own, but it shows that the Dutch people are looking to do more in worldwide fight against terrorism. The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA) has an excellent piece on the Dutch Intelligence’s examination of the radical Islamic threat within its country. The result has been to question Netherlands’ culture of "gedoogcultuur," or “culture of permissiveness,” which has helped...

AMSTERDAM — The Cabinet is reportedly planning to send 150 commandos to Afghanistan to fight alongside US soldiers in secret operations against terrorists holed up along the Pakistan border. The elite troops would be deployed for initially one year as part of the US military's Enduring Freedom operation aimed at flushing out and destroying radical-Islamic Taleban fighters and the terrorist network al-Qaeda of Osama bin Laden, newspaper De Telegraaf reported on Friday. Foreign Minister Ben Bot and Defence Minister Henk Kamp want the soldiers to engage in combat operations with US and British troops, plus those from other willing nations...

AMSTERDAM — A large majority of MPs on Thursday backed deploying 25 Dutch soldiers in a Nato operation to train Iraqi security forces in the beleaguered Iraqi capital Baghdad. Opposition parties green-left GroenLinks and the Socialist Party SP voted against the mission. GroenLinks MP Farah Karimi said it was irresponsible to send troops to the most dangerous city in Iraq, where bombings by insurgents are occurring on an almost daily basis. The mission is initially planned to take no longer than six months. But the Cabinet has said a large detachment might also be dispatched to Iraq and that it...

The majority in the mass-media only wish the general public to view the chaos, evil & even tragic deaths of Coalition troops caused by Islamic terrorists via 'homicide' car bombings, triggered by demented, death driven mad men. Free Iraqis are also putting their lives on the line everyday in their brave service in the Iraqi Army & police forces. It's high time the public is shown Coalition forces for all the various humanitarian assistance they have been offering the normal freedom loving people of Iraq. The very real sacrifice Coalition troops are making every day of the week will be...

Dutch authorities have confirmed that the country will withdraw its 1,350-contingent from Iraq in March next year. Police and security forces in Iraq will have to guarantee peace in the region alone, the Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende said. The Netherlands first sent troops to Iraq in August 2003 and won parliamentary approval this summer to extend their stay until March 2005. Iraq's interim administration wants to hold elections in January despite mounting violence, and the Netherlands has come under increasing US and British pressure to keep its troops there after March.

A representative of the radical Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has warned the Dutch troops in Iraq to stay inside their base. He said the attacks on Dutch troops will end only if they halt their efforts to arrest fighters of his Mahdi Army. Ghazi al-Zargani made his statement in an interview with the Japanese news agency Kyodo. Kyodo also reports that the Dutch army has begun negotiations with local followers of Mr al-Sadr. A delegation reportedly visited the office of the Mahdi Army in the city of as-Samawah on Monday. The discussion, which took place at the entrance to the...

A large majority of the Dutch parliament has approved the deployment of between 120 and 150 extra troops in Afghanistan. Only the Socialist Party opposed the move. The house was initially concerned about the safety of the Dutch soldiers, but Defence Minister Henk Kamp said that, in case of emergency, they would have the support of US troops in nearby bases. Their task is to restore peace to the province of Baghlan, where there are still regular clashes between local warlords. The soldiers will leave for northern Afghanistan in mid-September for a one-year tour of duty. Parliament will decide later...

THE HAGUE, Netherlands - The Dutch Cabinet decided Friday to extend the stay of its 1,400 troops in Iraq for eight months to help safeguard the transfer of sovereignty and elections due next January. The decision was made possible after the U.N. Security Council adopted a unanimous resolution on Tuesday backing the transfer of full sovereignty to Iraqi authorities, ending the U.S.-led occupation. A small coalition partner, D-66, then agreed to the extension of the troops' mandate, which expires July 15. A government statement said the troops would stay in Iraq at least through March 2005 to "contribute to stability...

The Dutch defence minister has decided to send six Apache helicopters to Iraq. The decision is based on a security analysis which shows that increasingly heavy weapons are being used against Dutch troops. The helicopters will be stationed at the Tallil airfield, where the Netherlands already has Chinook transport helicopters in place. About 100 troops will support the helicopter mission.

This week's killing of a Dutch soldier in Iraq will not automatically lead to the pullout of the 1260-strong Dutch contingent stationed there. Such a move would send the wrong signal, is the view of the Lower House of Parliament, backed by nearly half the Dutch population. Nonetheless, cabinet plans for extending the Netherlands mission in southern Iraq have becoming increasingly doubtful. In recent weeks, the Hague government has steered towards a six-month extension of the Dutch contribution to the SFIR stabilisation force in Iraq. Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, Defence Minister Henk Kamp and Foreign Minister Ben Bot have...

The Netherlands is reviewing participation in the U.S.-led stabilization force in Iraq after a Dutch soldier was killed in a grenade attack, the prime minister said Tuesday. Jan Peter Balkenende said the death of the soldier Monday, the first casualty among the 1,300-strong Dutch contingent in southern Iraq, was not by itself a reason to leave the country. "Reconstruction will go on, with all the sorrow of today. The forces of terrorism will not win," Balkenende said, speaking on national television.

A Dutch soldier died on Tuesday after being wounded in an attack in Iraq. The 36-year-old sergeant, member of the Netherlands airmobile brigade, was the first Dutch casualty in Iraq since some 1,300 troops were stationed there last July. Defence Ministry sources say the sergeant was one of four patrolling soldiers who came under attack late on Monday afternoon as they crossed a bridge over the Euphrates, in the town of al-Samawa, the capital of the southern province of al-Muthanna. Unknown assailants reportedly lobbed two or more grenades at the group, injuring two of the soldiers. The sergeant died overnight...

Dutch troops in southern Iraq have arrested four people in a car filled with weapons. The four passengers have been handed over to the British. The car was stopped at a checkpoint in a region where Dutch troops are deployed. They discovered a mortar launcher, mortars, hand grenades and a rifle.

President Bush lobbied the Dutch Prime Minister on the Iraq issue but won no committment that 1,300 troops from the Netherlands would remain in Iraq beyond June.Although small in number compared with the 110,000 US troops, the other nations forces are important for giving the war effort an international face, with 35 other nations now contributing troops.In response, President Bush Tuesday argued that the United States and its allies must remain 'strong, resolute and determined' in the fight against terrorism.'I would remind Dutch citizens that Al Qaida has an interest in Iraq for a reason,' Bush said after meeting Prime...

Dutch: we're "dhimmis", so we're safeA Dutch "terrorism expert" says that Holland is safe from Madrid-type bombs because it didn't take an aggressive role in the War on Terror. Susan, who sent this from Expatica, comments that that is tantamount to saying:"'We'll give you what you want in exchange for you agreeing not to kill us.'Not much different from 'I'll pay jizyah if you promise not to kill me.'" In the wake of the devastating bomb attacks in Madrid on Thursday, a Dutch terrorist expert has played down fears that the Netherlands could also be targeted. Edwin Bakker, of the...

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Attackers fired two rocket-propelled grenades at the Dutch Embassy in Iraq Friday night, hitting the roof with one and setting it on fire. The blaze was quickly extinguished, and there were no injuries. Also, a senior U.S. officer said coalition forces were prepared to deal with any surge in violence during a coming Muslim holiday. The start of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan last year was accompanied by a sharp escalation in insurgent attacks. One grenade exploded on the roof of the Dutch Embassy after nightfall, triggering a small fire. Security guards said a second grenade...

Anti-coalition forces and former regime elements should "lay down their arms and embrace the future," the commander of U.S.-led coalition forces in Iraq said in a briefing from Baghdad today. "The former regime is never going to come back," said Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, commander of Combined Joint Task Force 7. "We're going to be relentless in the pursuit of these targets. We're going to capture or kill them, as is our mission. Those that remain at large, and given the pace that we're moving toward sovereignty, it's time for them to lay down their arms and become...