Dutch people...

[Soviet]

I just came up with 3 good jokes, but I'll withhold them out of respect until we see whether or not this is actually serious or just sensationalized news.

[Azabael]

It's true. Our government has collapsed.

My radio is always on during the night. When I woke up yesterday and heard the news (It happened at 3AM), I felt seriously sick about it.
In my opinion, it was so irresponsible to stop now. They should have said: We can't agree on this particular subject, which is an important one though, but we must continue to rule this country on all other aspects. I know that's not really realistic, practically. But this move isn't very clever. It will at least take 6 months before we'll have a new government. So let's hope our temporary solution will be able to tackle the crisis.

Our governmet consists of three parties. The biggest one from the elections and 2 others so they have more than 50% of the seats available. (A total of 150) For the last few years, the government has been saying there will be no new mission in Afghanistan. Well, lately there has been some official requests from the USA and the NATO. Especially the biggest party, the CDA, didn't want any reputation loss towards the rest of the world. So it came down to saying it's possible that the Netherlands would accept another mission. But on the other hand you have the PvdA, the 2nd party in the government, who spread some different sounds that caused commotion. Last days, they've been together non-stop talking it over. The CDA wanted the PvdA to take back everything they said the last few months and keep the possibility of a new mission open. The PvdA didn't want to go that far, so they resigned from the government to prevent getting any more reputation loss in the country.

That's it in short, basically.

[[SoE]_Zaitsev]

And I agree that they should stay in Afghanistan. Finish what you started.

I find it a lack of respect to bail out because the people who died there, died for nothing.

When another soldier dies, it's the end of the world and everybody shouts that we need to get the fuck out of there. It's part of their jobs, maybe a crap part, but it happens, and every single one of them knows it might happen.

[[SoE]_Zaitsev]

Exactly.

The Americans and British are losing way more, but they also have much more soldiers overthere. And percentage wise the Dutch losses are nothing compared to American/British losses.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Task_Force_Uruzgan

Quoting:

A total of 21 Dutch soldiers have been killed so far, including the son of general Peter van Uhm, the current Chief of the Netherlands Defence Staff, who was killed in a roadside bombing just one day after his father assumed command.

[Soviet]

I find it a lack of respect to bail out because the people who died there, died for nothing.

As opposed to finishing what we started so that all those troops die for...still nothing

[Hoogie]

Just a bunch of douchebags, cba to care.

[[SoE]_Zaitsev]

I find it a lack of respect to bail out because the people who died there, died for nothing.

As opposed to finishing what we started so that all those troops die for...still nothing

I expected more from you tbh.

Sure, there are loads of retards overthere, still bombing everything, anywhere.

But most civilians overthere appreciate it actually.

[Soviet]

Great, here we go again.

It's an unwinnable war being fought for the wrong reasons that will in the long run have little to no effect. The way we are fighting them is no different than the British fighting in the American revolutionary war. England had every advantage; tech, numbers, discipline, experience, better generals, you name it. However, they marched down the middle of the street in straight lines wearing bright red coats and beating drums while the revolutionaries hid behind trees, camouflaged themselves, and constantly used ambush and stealth tactics.

The exact same is true with the wars in the Middle East, the invading countries are riding down the street on their giant ass tanks and in their big APCs with fatigues that explicitly say who they are down to what country they're from. Meanwhile, the revolutionaries (terrorism is a term coined by people who can't see multiple perspectives) are using remotely detonated bombs, blending in with the crowd, hiding out in the most remote and hard to find places there are, and launching surprise attacks and retreating. Our occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan is like someone using antibiotics to fight aids, you may see a little bit of pick up to begin with, you may even get lucky and restore order for a while, but in the end you're not even using the right tool and the disease is rooted way too far into the system to flush it out.

Even if we weren't there for our own selfish reasons and really wanted to help the people, and even if we did stay there 30 more years and continue to quell the revolutionaries, that won't stop them. In fact the revolutionaries will continue to grow in their hatred towards these invading countries and honestly, I can't blame them. Even if they were persecuting their citizens, we invaded them without any valid reason and forced them to adopt our system of government because we believe it is better. No matter how right we may or may not be we are no better than the original settlers and missionaries to the Americas forcing our religion onto those we deemed crude and less sophisticated than us, waging war on them and killing those that resisted.

Also, you thought better of me? You're the one saying people should die so that we can "finish what we started." You're saying people should die so that we can uphold a principle of completion. That's honestly messed up.

[[SoE]_Zaitsev]

Where did I say people should die ? Because I sure as hell didn't.

[Soviet]

So you're promoting the idea that people should go unnecessarily to a war torn country riddled with ambushes, bombs, and rpgs to...what? Have a tea party?

[Hoogie]

Its a war that can't be won..
They won't stop..
More and more soldiers will die and sure you'll get some terrorists but you will never stop it.

[BlueDamselfly]

Just a bunch of douchebags, cba to care.

Without those "bunch of douchebags", you would not even be able to get out of your home safely to go to the grocery store.

[Soviet]

Just a bunch of douchebags, cba to care.

Without those "bunch of douchebags", you would not even be able to get out of your home safely to go to the grocery store.

Ironically they put public image above the safety and well being of their citizens...sounds like a bunch of douchebags to me. Of course, even without those idiotic actions to define them, they would already automatically be douchebags for being politicians.

[JDogg]

I have to agree with Soviet on this one to be honest.

[Soviet]

Please do.