Afstan: New Dutch approach

They're going to be rather more active than previously (via Afghanistan Watch).

The Dutch troops in the southern Afghan province of Uruzgan will change its strategy this month, which could lead to more fighting with hostile groups, Dutch daily Trouw reported on Monday.

The battle group of the Dutch mission in Uruzgan will patrol around the clock to prevent movement by any gatherings of insurgents, including members of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, lieutenant colonel Rob Querido, commander of the battle group, told Trouw.

The battle group is going to operate according to the "amoeba model," named after a single-cell organism, which constantly changes shape. Querido said the Dutch unit will suddenly turn up here and there, with the aim of harassing the insurgents and eventually driving them out.

"That is the key to counterinsurgency: taking the initiative from the hostile groups and removing their freedom of movement," he said.

"By being more mobile we are going to irritate those groups. I expect they will react and that we will have more fighting," he added.

With the amoeba model the main priority of the military mission in Uruzgan will change. Up to now it is the Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT), which decides where patrols will go, but soon the PRT will follow the battle group and carry out reconstruction where patrols have been...

The Netherlands currently have about 1,400 troops in Uruzgan, and several hundred deployed elsewhere in the country.

Last Friday the Dutch mission suffered its first combat fatality when a soldier stepped on a landmine in the province of Helmand. The victim was a member of the Air Mobile Brigade, which has been deployed as part of a major offensive by NATO troops and Afghan security forces against Taliban fighters since February.

Before him, the Netherlands had lost four soldiers due to accidents and one who committed suicide.

This story makes the Chinese media; I bet you won't see it in our mainstream free press.

Update: A good report by Rosie DiManno in the Toronto Star:

Early last Friday, the Netherlands suffered their first combat casualty in Afghanistan, a soldier killed when he stepped on a roadside bomb. It happened less than two kilometres from Forward Operating Base Robinson – where Canadians troops are deployed – in the Sangin River Valley, just over the border in Helmand province.

Last night, the remains of Cpl. Cor Strik were flown out of Kandahar Airfield following a ramp ceremony that was closed to the media, save for a Dutch TV crew – and they can only broadcast their footage after the 33-year-old victim's funeral is held back in Holland on Friday.

They do things differently, the Dutch.

That idiosyncrasy in approach – rightly or wrongly, defensible or questionable – also explains why this was their first combat fatality, compared with 54 deaths for Canadian troops in the same period, just over a year in the volatile southern provinces of Afghanistan.

The Dutch, with some notable and under-reported exceptions, do not fight. This is not meant as an indictment or slur against their character because it has nothing to do with courage or lack thereof.

It's all about orders, rules of engagement determined by The Hague, and caveats imposed on Holland's contribution, some 2,000 troops in all, to the NATO coalition.

These caveats – and most alliance nations have insisted on them – have been tremendously frustrating to NATO command and most especially Canada, whose soldiers are doing so much of the heavy combat lifting, with casualties to match.

"What are we doing here?" a young Dutch infantryman asked rhetorically yesterday when approached by the Toronto Star. "That's a good question. Who knows?

"Is this a war or is this nation-building? On the Dutch news, that's what everybody is asking. The Hague seems uncertain what they want from us. There are forces pulling in both directions. Our country is torn over this mission. But I am just a soldier and we do what we are told."

Sound familiar?

This young Dutch soldier – a driver with an infantry logistics crew – can't give his name because those are the media rules of engagement as ordained by Dutch military command. The hierarchy is in strict control of all information dissemination. The aforementioned TV crew was actually flown into Afghanistan by the military, although they were allowed unusual freedom of movement with Dutch troops deployed in Uruzgan, the increasingly tumultuous province north of Kandahar.

Video shot shows Dutch troops doing remarkably un-Dutch things, including kicking open doors in an aggressive village search for Taliban militants and then, by way of atonement for damage inflicted, handing out money to civilians to pay for the damages just caused...

The Dutch are a solid NATO ally in the Afghanistan coalition of 37 nations – though the brunt of security, patrol and combat assignments fall to the Canadians, Americans and British. Helicopter transportation – the lifting and delivering of troops – is also largely a Dutch responsibility, using mostly Chinooks purchased from Canada.

But there has been keen anxiety, and conflict, back in Holland about the nature of Dutch activity in Afghanistan.

The Hague's decision to deploy troops, last February, came only after intense parliamentary debate, a wrangling that had extended for six months...

The myth is that Dutch forces have essentially shunned combat, emphasizing make-nice reconstruction and redevelopment projects in Uruzgan, for which Holland has primary responsibility, concentrating their efforts in the less dangerous areas – earlier "pacified" by Americans, especially in the basin around Tarin Kowt, the provincial capital.

It's an approach that appeals to many Canadians, some of whom earnestly call for this country's troops to do ditto, as if any of these benign undertakings could be launched without somebody first assuming the perilous security duties which, yes, do involve raids and searches and sometimes disgruntled civilians.

In truth, Dutch troops have shown their mettle in Uruzgan – how much of this has been explained to folks back home is difficult to ascertain from here – and, while generally not provoking or firing first, they have certainly fired back.

So, they do fight, somewhat, sporadically.

Certainly, a tip of the sword component – Tiger Company, the Dutch airborne infantry unit operating out of FOB Robinson, and several hundred other troops attached to Operation Achilles in Helmand province – fight as required, according to interviews conducted by the Star.

They conduct patrols and secure zones in hostile environments. Yet other soldiers who've returned from those areas continue to grumble that their Dutch colleagues often prefer to withdraw from enemy range when things heat up.

The last time the Star was at FOB Robinson was a year ago so this reporter has been unable to independently confirm either version of events...