Stay on longer or pull out as planned? That’s the tough decision the Dutch government faces over the country’s participation in the ISAF mission in Afghanistan.

Public and political opinion in the Netherlands is deeply divided, and there’s pressure from the US and other NATO countries being thrown into the mix as well.

Dick Berlijn was the Netherlands’ military chief of defence from 2004 to 2008 and the man who oversaw the deployment of Dutch ISAF troops in Uruzgan. He is convinced that the West – and his own country too - has a duty to remain in Afghanistan.

Listen to the Newsline interview with Dick Berlijn

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“At the end of the day, you come to the conclusion that there’s no alternative. At least, the alternative would be that we leave Afghanistan to what it is, we turn our backs to humanitarian rights. We would be callous as a society saying, ‘Well, you know, who cares? We don’t care if a nation is being killed.’ That would be the alternative. We’re not there as invaders; we’re there because the Afghan people have asked the UN to help get control of things.”
 
Public support for the mission has fallen as the death toll among Dutch troops has risen, making any decision to extend the Uruzgan operation an unpopular one politically. But Dick Berlijn is adamant that this is a fight that’s worth winning even when a high price has to be paid.
 
“When people die, when colleagues die, when your child dies, it’s a terrible thing," he says. "But I think we have to be very careful to keep in mind the big picture. What are we achieving there? Are we achieving the things that we set out to do? There are many facets to this debate and what happens quite a lot is that we only take one aspect of the debate and focus on that. That is not the right way to do it, I think.”
 
Obama
Although a military man, Dick Berlijn stresses the importance of the developmental aspects of the ISAF mission – something that US President Barack Obama also emphasised when announcing the deployment of an extra 30,000 troops from his country to Afghanistan. Defeating the Taliban and stabilising Afghan society cannot be achieved simply by fighting. The causes of conflict are deeply-rooted, so the solution has to be wide-ranging.
 
“There’s large-scale corruption, there’s instability, there’s factions, there’s infighting. What is the reason? At the end of the day you come to the conclusion that it has to do with the imbalanced distribution of welfare. We have to be ready to also spread some of our wealth to that part of the world. And that translates into a commitment: to investing in education, in healthcare, in training the police and the other security forces. In helping the legitimate government in Afghanistan. That’s what we’re there for.”
 
Commitment
The Dutch mission in Afghanistan is due to end in July this year, and the country’s three-party coalition cabinet must make its decision soon. NATO is urging its member countries to increase and extend their commitment to ISAF and Dick Berlijn believes that having decided to co-operate in an international context, the Netherlands should not now decide unilaterally to pull out of Afghanistan. Not only would that go down very badly with the Netherlands’ allies, there is, again, the question of moral responsibility.
 
“The Netherlands is a small country; it’s a rich country and with wealth comes responsibility. The Dutch have always been seen as a responsible member of the international community. I hope that the Dutch politicians - so that’s the government but also the parliament - will realise that we cannot turn our backs on Afghanistan and the international community needs to stay on. And as a responsible member of the international community we need to play a role. The basis is that we understand we cannot pull out.”
 
Find a formula
What Dick Berlijn expects – what he hopes – is that the government will find a way to honour its commitment to the Dutch public to pull out of Afghanistan, but that it will delay its original date to mesh with the US aim of beginning a full withdrawal by the end of 2011. He also refers to the possibility of asking other NATO countries to take over certain tasks the Dutch have been performing up till now and to agree that the Dutch will be among the first forces to leave when the appropriate time comes. It should not be too difficult, he believes, to find a formula to allow the Dutch ISAF mission to stay in Afghanistan for a while longer. And he believes adamantly that such a formula must be found.
 
Photo: A member of a Dutch ISAF unit on foot patrol in Uruzgan - ANP/RICK NEDERSTIGT