Dutch out of Afstan after all (but maybe not completely)

Further to this post,

Afstan: Canada to be the odd man out?

at least Canada will not be the odd man out after all (though our government plans to pull out lock, stock and smoking barrel while the Dutch may keep their F-16s). From DutchNews.nl:

The Dutch government collapsed in the early hours of Saturday morning over Labour's insistence that the Netherlands pull out of Afghanistan this year.

After two days of intensive talks and a bitter parliamentary debate, it had become increasingly clear the gulf between prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende and deputy prime minister Wouter Bos was too great to bridge.

Labour leader Bos stated earlier this week that he wanted a decision on Nato's request to the Netherlands to stay in Afghanistan at Friday's cabinet meeting. And that decision would have to be a no, he said repeatedly...

The prime minister will now offer his government's resignation to the queen, who is skiing in Lech, Austria.

This is the fourth Balkenende government not to complete a formal four year term. Two others collapsed over political infighting and one was a minority cabinet.

A general election will take place within three months and will not affect the local elections which take place on March 3.

Withdrawal

The collapse of the government means that the withdrawal of Dutch troops from Afghanistan will now begin in August because caretaker ministers are not allowed to make controversial decisions [emphasis added]...

Dutch politicians, unlike ours--especially the government, had the decency as serious people actually to discuss the substance of the issue. More from Radio Nederland:

The collapse of the coalition government in the Netherlands automatically means that Dutch forces will be withdrawn from the Afghan province of Uruzgan as of 1 August. The withdrawal of the 1,500 military personnel currently in the province will be completed by the end of December. The move is mandatory under a government decision taken in late 2007, in which the Netherlands signed up for another two-year stint in Uruzgan beginning on 1 August 2008.

The Netherlands is the first country of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) to withdraw its troops. The only Dutch contribution to ISAF that is expected to remain consists of four F-16 fighter planes based at Kandahar Airfield [emphasis added, our government is too chicken, to be frank, to deploy our CF-18 Hornets to Afstan]. Some civilian personnel of the foreign affairs and development aid ministries may remain in Uruzgan. NATO is expected to task another member state with the activities currently being carried out by the Dutch [has to be the US one must think [emphasis added]...

Multinational
Currently, the Dutch part of the Task Force Uruzgan comprises some 1,500 military personnel. Five hundred other Dutch troops are stationed elsewhere in Afghanistan. Six hundred soldiers of the Task Force Uruzgan form a 'Battle Group'. In addition, there is a Dutch-led Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT), a Special Forces unit. It also includes Apache attack helicopters, heavy artillery and logistics units. A sizeable Australian Mentoring and Reconstruction Task Force and smaller French and Slovakian units are also part of the Task Force Uruzgan...

Plus from the NY Times:

The question plaguing military planners was whether a Dutch departure would embolden the war’s critics in other allied countries, where debate over deployment is continuing, and hasten the withdrawal of their troops as well.

“If the Dutch go, which is the implication of all this, that could open the floodgates for other Europeans to say, ‘The Dutch are going, we can go, too,’ ” said Julian Lindley-French, professor of defense strategy at the Netherlands Defense Academy in Breda. “The implications are that the U.S. and the British are going to take on more of the load [Canada not being part of that Anglosphere though the Aussies still are].”..

Since taking office, Mr. Obama has been pressing the non-American members of the coalition to increase their contribution, seeking up to 10,000 additional troops. While NATO has pledged around 7,000 troops, critics of the alliance’s efforts accuse it of fuzzy math: counting up to 2,000 soldiers who were already in Afghanistan but had been scheduled to leave after the recent election.

And even the 7,000 figure was notional [emphasis added]; NATO is holding a “force generation conference” this week at which time official pledges will be made, and there are questions about whether it will reach that number [more here]...

Although American officials are concerned that an exodus by the Dutch could prompt other allies to follow suit, a sudden rush to exit seemed unlikely...

Quelle humiliation! No mention that the CF are pulling out in 2011.

Update: PM's statement today:

The 1,600 Dutch troops in Afghanistan will begin leaving the war-torn country in August, Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende said Sunday, a day after his coalition government collapsed over opposition to extending the country's mission beyond its scheduled end this summer.

Appearing on Dutch television Sunday, Balkenende said the Netherlands will pull out of Uruzgan province, where 21 Dutch soldiers have died since they were first deployed there in 2006.

"Our task as the lead nation ends in August this year," he said...

When asked about the deployment Sunday, Balkenende said his caretaker government was bound by an earlier decision to give up the command position in Uruzgan as of Aug. 1.

The pullout will take as long as three months, with the last of the Dutch soldiers leaving the volatile province by December...

So does that leave some wriggle-room to keep the 500 military personnel not in Uruzgan, at least quite a few of them (and the F-16s)? Unlike our total bug-out.