ARTICLE: Dutch Soldiers Stress Restraint in Afghanistan, By C. J. CHIVERS, New York Times, April 6, 2007
Good piece by Chivers, who's former military-gone-journalism and who occasionally writes for Esquire (Warren thinks he's a water-walker). Restraint is everything in peace-keeping for two reasons: 1) to want to create local capacity, not do it for them, and 2) your real goal is the overall reduction of violence, even at the costs of increased risks to your own guys and maybe not going kinetic on every bad guy out there (remember, they will grow them faster than you can kill them).
Dutch, like the Brits are super solid on this. I got a chance to chat some up just exiting Afghanistan while in Crete (they go there for R&R). Like the Brits and Canadians and Aussies, these guys are very impressive, very smart, very talented officers.
They can teach us much.
Thanks to motoole125 for sending this.
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Comments (5)
When I read this piece, I commented on my thread that setting up Sys Admin "Housekeeping" is great. But you still have to find and kill the cockroaches. I suspect the Dutch approach is done more from a "don't bother them and maybe they won't bother us" attitude.
Posted by Bill Millan | April 7, 2007 12:20 AM
The Times article discusses how the Dutch believe that, "construction projects and consistent political and social support will lure the population from the Taliban, allowing the central and provincial governments to expand their authority over the long term." Is this approach different from the one they took in Srebrenica? I hope so.
Posted by John McNamara | April 7, 2007 8:58 AM
Krakatoa: The Day The World Exploded has a very good treatment of the Dutch SysAdmin in colonial Indonesia, before, during, and after the volcanic disaster.
Posted by Dan tdaxp | April 7, 2007 10:03 AM
After reading this piece in the Times I was hoping Tom would comment on it!
This article describes exactly how the Sysadmin force should work. It also help to explain how this force has a different "ethos" than what people usually expect from the US army (ie. total obliteration of the "enemy").
Since it is now becoming common knowledge that counter-insurgency / reconstruction efforts really only work when you do it this way, it reinforces Tom's call for having a small, fast and deadly attack force that is separate from a large peace force that has the mentality to show extreme restraint.
Posted by Mike Frager | April 7, 2007 11:48 AM
As has been mentioned, the restraint that the Dutch showed at Srebrenica was not particularly helpful, except that it brought an end to the UN's credibility. Economic development is certainly an important part of the picture but it does not substitute for protecting people in your care from armed gangs of religious/ethnic fanatics.
Posted by Mark in Texas | April 8, 2007 7:21 AM