US Ambassador Tells Netherlands Criticism Misunderstanding

, THE HAGUE: US Ambassador Ronald Arnall told Defence Minister Eimert van Middelkoop yesterday that the US has full confidence in the Dutch troops in Afghanistan. Criticism that US defence secretary Robert Gates made in the Los Angeles Times must be a misunderstanding, he stressed. 
 
Van Middelkoop summoned Arnall yesterday prompted by sharp criticism of the NATO troops in the south of Afghanistan. According to an interview in the US newspaper, Gates said that the Dutch, Canadian and British ISAF soldiers do not know how they must crush a guerrilla rising and suggested that shortcomings of non-American troops may contribute to the increase in violence. 
 
Van Middelkoop said after his meeting with Arnall that he was assuming that there was a misunderstanding. The Dutch minister “absolutely does not recognise” the picture that the newspaper gives. 
 
Arnall said he was “sure that (Gates) was misquoted”. On behalf of Gates, the ambassador thanked the Netherlands for its “outstanding work” in Afghanistan. 
 
The Netherlands recently extended its military contribution in the southern region of Uruzgan by two years after August 2008. Van Middelkoop stressed the professional status, experience and modernisation of the Dutch army, which has already participated in over 50 peace-keeping missions. 
 
Gates' alleged criticism of the ISAF mission came a day after the US government decided to send 3,200 extra marines to Afghanistan, with an eye to an expected Taliban offensive in the coming months. This will bring the number of US troops in Afghanistan to 30,000, the highest level since the invasion at end-2001.