It has been the big debate for weeks now in The Netherlands, and I tried to avoid blogging about it, but it seems that this week the Dutch goverment (cabinet) will decide if they are going to send more troops to the province of Uruzgan in Afghanistan or not. The whole mission has become a major political issue since D66, one of the parties in the Dutch government, told they will not agree with another mission because they think its too dangerous. Off course the US is putting a lot of pressure on the Dutch government to agree with such a mission; former US ambassador in the Netherlands (Paul Bremer III) said that if we would not send soldiers this would have “economical repercussions” for the Netherlands. Off course other US government officials denied that. And this morning secratary general Kofi Annan of the UN had a talk with our prime minister Balkenende about the whole issue. He said that he hopes the Dutch ‘will make the right decision’ in this matter. He also stated that a mission without the Dutch would be ‘problematic’.
The whole issue is very problematic for the government because a recent opinion poll shows that half the Dutch population is against such a mission. Only about 38 percent thinks the Dutch should go. With some local elections coming up it seems political suicide for the political parties to vote in favor of the mission. Also the smallest government party, D66, has made it clear they are against the mission and they do have the power to turn this into a crisis which would lead to the fall of the current government.
All the pressure on the Dutch government doesn’t come as a surprise: after the Dutch and the French voted against the European constitution in May 2005 other European countries are trying to get us back ‘in line’ so to speak. For instance: the Dutch are a member of the NATO and in fact the current secretary general is a former Dutch politician: Jaap de Hoop Scheffer. Pressure is coming from them as well.
As I see it there are three options: either the Dutch cabinet is going to fall over this matter – thus leaving the decision to another cabinet – or they are going to defy international pressure and will not send troops or they will give in to this pressure and defy the opinion of the Dutch people – which will certainly be political suicide for the CDA and VVD.
I guess this is going to be the toughest decision the Dutch cabinet has to make in a long time.