DutchNews.nl - 'Dutch asked for military support in Iraq'

Home

Opinion

'Dutch asked for military support in Iraq'

Friday 30 January 2009

MPs have urged the government to clarify claims in a regional newspaper that the US did ask the Netherlands to lend military support to the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Regional paper De Stentor carries an interview with former US deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage in which he states ‘there was absolutely a request... for military support... We sent official documents and we sent diplomats to the Netherlands. I call that a request.’

Dutch prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende, who was also premier at the time of the war, has always denied that the US made an official request for help.

Rewards

Armitage told the paper there could be no doubt about Washington’s intentions. ‘We were only after military help. We thought the Iraqis would welcome us with flowers and that we could leave quickly. And that is what we told our allies,’ the paper quotes him as saying.

The Netherlands eventually gave the war political but not military backing.

De Stentor claims that the Netherlands was rewarded for its support. For example, Armitage saw to it personally that Holland did not face sanctions for its role in human trafficking to the US, the paper says.

And the Dutch position on Iraq helped the country’s foreign minister at the time, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, to get the job of secretary general of Nato.

The Dutch government is under increasing pressure to agree to a parliamentary inquiry into events surrounding its support for the Iraq war.

Subscribe Newsletter
Print-version
News archives

Readers' comments

Although I understand what you mean in the above headline, it is misleading. The Dutch were asked by the USA to participate in the invasion, not the other way around!

By Jay Vos | January 30, 2009 4:18 PM

There ain't nothing wrong for asking your buddy for help, eh pal? You only need to say "ney" if you can't, we can take no for an answer.

By Carlos Borjal | January 30, 2009 4:57 PM

If you do a little digging, you'll find that the Dutch did provide a little 'military support' almost immediately, in the form of a submarine. This was used to gather intelligence in the Gulf.
And then we have the famous or infamous gaff of a Dutch officer appearing on television with the US high command.
It was revealed by Vrij Nederland and picked up by the FD's English news.
Funny it's never been mentioned since.

By Garry | January 31, 2009 8:58 AM

Comments have been closed for this article.

News