Defense Technology International - July 2007 - (Page 29)

d d e g o o n s; ly t p l, o d d e e e h d s d . ’s e Australian soldiers ask for orders after a suicide bombing in Tarin Kowt. Ministry hadn’t released news of the Chura battle for several days. Ofﬁcials attributed Smeehuyzen’s death to an isolated bombing, but knew that the second death would require an explanation. So they admitted that their peaceful reconstruction mission had turned into a knockdown ﬁght that claimed 100 lives. Defense Minister Eimert Van Middelkoop said he would reconsider the commitment in Afghanistan. If the mission continued beyond 2008, he said, it would probably be on a smaller scale. But in early June, Jonkers confessed that the 2,000-strong task force had expanded to its geographic limit. Force cuts would mean surrendering the outermost territory, perhaps including Chura, before the reconstruction team had a chance to complete major projects. In other words, the ministry was prepared to hand its own forces the very defeat the Taliban had tried and failed to inﬂict. Lt. Col. Gino Van Der Voet, commander of the task force’s reconstruction troops, was fed up with the ministry’s lack of spine. For days he had turned down interview requests from three reporters embedded at Kamp Holland. But on June 20, he summoned this reporter to say what the ministry would rather not hear, that he was “very proud” of his troops’ victory over the Taliban. “There has been discussion in the past over whether we were capable or willing to ﬁght at this scale. I think that discussion is over now.” But a more important discussion had just begun, over the relationship between a resur- gent Dutch military and its weak-kneed civilian masters, and over the role—if any—that one of Europe’s oldest armies would play in a new and increasingly volatile world. � DTI’s weblog, Ares, has an entire series of posts from Axe’s trip to Afghanistan, along with pictures and video. Go to DTI’s homepage: aviationweek.com/dti and click on ‘Extras for this issue’ under ‘DTI Interactive.’ ti www.aviationweek.com/dti JULY/AUGUST 2007 DEFENSE TECHNOLOGY INTERNATIONAL 29   Page PB 3/5/07 2:43 PM 3932720318 CMYK    � http://aviationweek.com/dti http://www.athenati.com http://www.athenati.com http://www.aviationweek.com/dti

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Defense Technology International - July 2007

Around the World Science Watch Tech Watch Parallax Ghost Ship Low Visibility Red Tape Sub Catcher Boom Time Broad Access Fight or Flight Cut Loose Loud and Clear Drone On Postmortem The Net Cutting Edge On the Record In Review Insight

Defense Technology International - July 2007

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