Leavenworth Strategist

Dutch take command in fight against pirates

By Hans de Vreij for RNW

The Dutch frigate HNLMS Evertsen will be playing a dual role over the coming four months. On the one hand it will be escorting ships.

This might mean guarding vessels belonging to the United Nations' World Food Programme, which sail between Mombassa and the Somali capital Mogadishu, or accompanying merchant shipping convoys in the Gulf of Aden, or making a sudden appearance in the waters around the Seychelles.

Vast area

On the other hand, the ship is also the command platform from which Commodore Pieter Bindt and his staff will be managing the whole of Operation Atalanta.

The European naval force comprises eight to twelve ships and a number of reconnaissance aircraft. Its area of operations is vast, says commodore Bindt...

NATO ships in new anti-piracy mission (Allied Protector)

BRUSSELS (AFP) — NATO warships will be in position next week to conduct a new anti-piracy operation in a major world shipping area off the coast of Somalia, the alliance's chief spokesman said Wednesday.

"NATO ambassadors have now approved the operational plan for the deployment of the standing naval maritime group one to conduct counter-piracy operations off the coast of Somalia," spokesman James Appathurai told reporters.

He said that seven ships -- one each from the United States, Canada, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain, with two vessels from Germany -- would exit the Suez Canal on March 19...

US: Dutch, British to extend Afghanistan commands

By LOLITA C. BALDOR, Associated Press Writer

The Defense Department said Wednesday it has shelved a plan to take greater control in parts of Afghanistan where NATO is in charge after the Dutch and British agreed to extend their commands.

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said the Netherlands and Britain will stay in control in southern Afghanistan for a full year, rather than nine months, as the military alliance fights a stubborn Taliban insurgency.

The European allies agreed to the new arrangement in recent conversations with Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Morrell said.

NATO Command Extension in Afghanistan Isn’t Done Deal, Spokesman Says

By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, May 22, 2008 – A Pentagon announcement yesterday that NATO command tours will be extended to a year was premature, Defense Department officials said today.

Geoff Morrell, Pentagon press secretary, said he was wrong when he said during a news conference that Dutch and British officials had agreed to extend their commands of Regional Command South from nine to 12 months.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has spoken with his Dutch and British counterparts about the problems associated with nine-month command tours in Regional Command South, Morrell said. “They have all agreed that extending them to 12 months would provide more stability and predictability,” he said in a written correction. “This is not yet a done deal.

NATO Allies Bristle at Criticisms From Gates

By Molly Moore and Ann Scott TysonWashington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, January 17, 2008; Page A18

PARIS, Jan. 16 -- Some of the United States' closest NATO allies expressed anger and astonishment Wednesday at published statements by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates describing their forces as poorly trained for fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Gates's comments, which were reported in the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday, came the day after the Pentagon announced it would send about 3,200 Marines to Afghanistan because NATO allies had failed to contribute more troops.

The main forces fighting Taliban efforts to regroup in southern Afghanistan include some of Washington's staunchest allies -- Canada, Britain and the Netherlands.

BUNDESWEHR UNDER PRESSURE

17 Dec 07 Spiegel

By Alexander Szandar and Susanne Koelbl

Public Mood Is Shifting

In many other countries, however, a heated public debate has erupted over how long the alliance's troops should continue to support a country in which drug production continues to reach new record highs and corruption has eaten its way into the highest levels of government.

In Germany, at any rate, the mood has already shifted. According to recent opinion polls, half of all Germans no longer support the country's Afghanistan mission and favor withdrawing the Bundeswehr from the country.

Public opinion is similar in Canada, which has more than 1,700 troops fighting in southern Afghanistan and has already lost 29 soldiers this year. According to an official who Peter Struck, the floor leader of Germany's Social Democratic Party (SPD), recently sent to Canada to sound out the political mood there, the government in Ottawa is coming under increasing pressure. According to the official, if the current opposition wins next year's election, its first move will be to "announce the withdrawal of troops."

The Dutch have already taken that step. After losing eight soldiers in Afghanistan this year, the cabinet ended a series of heated debates with a clear resolution. The government in The Hague announced that it had reached an irrevocable decision to begin withdrawing its troops, stationed primarily in war-torn Uruzgan Province, in August 2010. Under the resolution, the last of the Dutch soldiers will be home by Christmas 2010.

The Dutch decision may have set a precedent, raising concerns among NATO military leaders over a possible domino effect. If only one major NATO country yields to domestic pressure and decides to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan, it could set off an avalanche, a Norwegian general recently told Wolfgang Schneiderhan, the inspector general of the Bundeswehr. "It would be a strategic defeat for the alliance."

Dutch troops to leave Afghanistan

December 19, 2007 (AFP)

The Netherlands has announced Dutch troops will leave Afghanistan from July 2010, in a decision that may have implications for Australia's commitment in the war-torn nation.

It remains uncertain whether other nations will send enough soldiers to replace the Dutch troops.

"I do not have assurances that other countries will be ready to replace Netherlands troops, but I am certain that Dutch troops will leave in 2010," Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen told journalists.

"I indicated that in writing ... to the NATO secretary general, who has confirmed it."

The Netherlands government decided last month to prolong its Afghanistan deployment by two years to December 2010, in a move that is expected to be approved in parliament.

Dutch will stay in Afghanistan

AFP Published: Nov 23, 2007
THE HAGUE - Dutch government parties have agreed to extend the Dutch mission in Afghanistan, public broadcaster NOS reported, citing well-informed sources.

According to the NOS, the parties in the centre-left coalition government have agreed to extend the mandate of the Dutch troops in the southern Afghan province of Uruzgan, which expires in August 2008, until 2010.