Dutch government falls

KeptinCranky · 02-20-10, 09:22 PM

Skybird, It does appear that our foreign minister made some verbal guarantees to the Nato chairman... there's also that whole business with our previous foreign minister being the Nato chairman before Rasmussen,...

there's no actual evidence but I doesn't take a genius to piece together that they promised Nato to stay longer and thought they could get away with a fait accompli.

I'm glad they didn't, I'm not a big fan of the current (ex)government, I do not like the way they mix their christian mythology into their politics...I'm happy to see them sod off, I just wish they'd done so earlier.
All I hope is that we'll finally be rid of that ineffectual nitwit Balkenende, and hopefully have the next government entirely without the christian democrats.

There's local elections for city councils in two weeks, we'll see what happens there for an indication about who we Dutch feel takes the blame for this mess.

As to the mission our military's doing in Uruzgan province in Afghanistan, I think they've done some good over the years, I just hope it lasts, despite the casualties. I just feel that two important rules for any military action were ignored in agreeing to go there in the first place:
- "Never start a land war in asia" and
- if you have to fight, fight to win,

they should've gone in with everything and the kitchen sink to back them up, not leave the Leopard tanks and the artillery support behind... I've seen some references from other countries that call our troops "the beggar army". if there's ANY truth to that I feel the government responsible has a lot to answer for..

02-20-10, 09:22 PM	#9
KeptinCranky Ace of the Deep Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Netherlands Posts: 1,050 Downloads: 3 Uploads: 0	Skybird, It does appear that our foreign minister made some verbal guarantees to the Nato chairman... there's also that whole business with our previous foreign minister being the Nato chairman before Rasmussen,... there's no actual evidence but I doesn't take a genius to piece together that they promised Nato to stay longer and thought they could get away with a fait accompli. I'm glad they didn't, I'm not a big fan of the current (ex)government, I do not like the way they mix their christian mythology into their politics...I'm happy to see them sod off, I just wish they'd done so earlier. All I hope is that we'll finally be rid of that ineffectual nitwit Balkenende, and hopefully have the next government entirely without the christian democrats. There's local elections for city councils in two weeks, we'll see what happens there for an indication about who we Dutch feel takes the blame for this mess. As to the mission our military's doing in Uruzgan province in Afghanistan, I think they've done some good over the years, I just hope it lasts, despite the casualties. I just feel that two important rules for any military action were ignored in agreeing to go there in the first place: - "Never start a land war in asia" and - if you have to fight, fight to win, they should've gone in with everything and the kitchen sink to back them up, not leave the Leopard tanks and the artillery support behind... I've seen some references from other countries that call our troops "the beggar army". if there's ANY truth to that I feel the government responsible has a lot to answer for..