Newsline 4 September 2009: The new US Ambassador to NATO tells us what he hopes the Alliance can achieve in Afghanistan; we ask why right-wing politician Geert Wilders has such a big following amongst former Dutch East Indies colonists, and discover life is good in the town known as the last outpost of Calvinism.

"A war of necessity"
For the new US Ambassador to NATO, the war in Afghanistan is priority number one - "a war of necessity, not a war of choice". He told RNW about the failings of the "Operation Enduring Freedom"over the past eight years, and his hopes that the new strategy of the Obama Administration will finally turn around the situation in Afghanistan.

Listen to the Newsline interview with Ivo Daalder

Geert Wilders is one of us
Populist politician Geert Wilders is surprisingly popular among people who came to the Netherlands from the former Dutch East Indies. The key, believes anthropologist Lizzy van Leeuwen, lies in Mr Wilders' own convoluted family history.

Calvin's last heirs
Staphorst is a town in the heart of the Dutch bible belt, renowned as home to the true heirs of Calvin. Newsline visits to see how values are  changing in the 21st century and how progress is altering a traditional way of life.

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Photo (c) ANP