Top army officials and union bosses in both the Netherlands and Afghanistan have reacted fiercely to the government crisis over Afghanistan police and what they call the ‘party political manoeuverings’ of the Labour party, writes the Volkskrant on Friday.

They resent the fact that the achievements of the mission and the interests of the Afghan people have not played any part in the discussions. Many officers are in favour of continuing a downscaled mission in the area, the paper writes.
‘The men on the ground are continuing with the business in hand because there’s not really anything they can do’, one officer is quoted as saying. The main worry for the taskforce at the moment is the effect on its territory of the big ISAF attack in neighbouring Helmand.
Former army commander Dick Berlijn says that to call the Dutch involvement in Afghanistan a purely military operation is to diminish what the army has done in Afghanistan and an insult to the ministry of defence.