Interview CLAS

[Lex]

Lt. Gen. Rob Bertholee
Commander of the Royal Netherlands Army

As talk swirls around Washington about sending more American troops and resources to Afghanistan, Lt. Gen. Rob Bertholee, commander of the Royal Netherlands Army, has some advice for U.S. officials: Any revised coalition strategy in the war-torn nation should include a "comprehensive" approach, or one that features defense, diplomatic and development aspects. He said his troops, which will remain in southern Afghanistan until at least 2010, have had success in Uruzgan province using such an approach.
Bertholee said he has learned a lot about his forces since they were first sent to Afghanistan in 2002. Overall, he is "satisfied" with how Dutch soldiers have performed there. Back in the Netherlands, a panel of defense and national security experts are examining how Dutch officials should prepare the military for future missions.

Q. GRADE THE DUTCH DEPLOYMENT TO AFGHANISTAN.
A. We're not seeing the same amount of progress every day. One day we take two steps forward; the next day we may take one step back. All and all, we are making progress.
I am pretty much satisfied with what we are doing there from a professional military point of view. I think my soldiers are showing they are professionals and are fully up to the mission. We have some very young lieutenants, young captains, young sergeants, young majors who are doing a very complicated job very well.
I see it as a deployment in a country where time has a very different meaning than we know in Europe or the United States. It's a place where progress should be measured against a different yardstick. It's going to be slow no matter what we try.

Q. WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED ABOUT YOUR TROOPS?
A. Our squad leaders, our platoon leader, our company commanders - the youngsters - have proven to be fully fit for their mission. And that is not easy. If you take the average platoon commander on a patrol, he'll have his own troops, he'll have an air control team, he'll have a medical squad, he'll have engineers. He'll have to talk to local authorities. There are so many things he has to take care of. It's amazing to see how well they are doing.
On the darker side, this is a very demanding mission for the Dutch Army. The total amount of people linked to the mission - and that means the people in the mission area, the people preparing for the next rotation, the ones that have just come back - you will find we are committing about 7,000 people. All and all, we would have about 50 percent commitment of our Army every day.

Q. HOW HAS SUCH AN OPERATIONAL COMMITMENT AFFECTED YOUR ABILITY TO TRAIN YOUR FORCES?
A. We are good at what we are doing in Afghanistan, and we're getting better at it each day. But no one can guarantee me that the next mission will be similar to what is going on in Afghanistan. We need to be aware that we need to be able to train the Army in a broader perspective - not just [counterinsurgency] operations.
At the company level, there's not so much of a problem. But at the battalion level and up, it is something we have to keep a very close eye on because they are so involved in training the squads, platoons and companies for the mission in Afghanistan that we can hardly find the time to train at the battalion or brigade and interbrigade level. Anything that we're not doing in Afghanistan, we have given too little attention to.

Q. WHERE SHOULD THE COALITION'S FOCUS BE IN AFGHANISTAN?
A. Large parts of Afghanistan are still in the Middle Ages. That makes it very hard for us to understand the nation and find out where you have to plug into the system to improve the country. There is so much to improve that no matter what you take up, you'll probably improve things.
The flip side is, it's very hard to see the results right away. You have to look at it in a holistic way; you have to take a comprehensive approach. You cannot neglect the defense side, nor the diplomacy side, nor the development side.

Q. WOULD YOU SUPPORT AN APPROACH IN AFGHANISTAN THAT WOULD MIRROR CLOSELY THE "SURGE" IN IRAQ?
A. Afghanistan is a large country, so whenever you are able to put in more troops, it would benefit Afghanistan. Much more important would be to take a comprehensive approach to not neglect the defense, development or diplomacy sides. You have to tackle it all. Otherwise, you will not succeed.
One of the great examples here is the focused development of the Afghan National Police. It will make sure the police in a particular district are taken away and trained to be proper policemen. And it works.
More capabilities at any given point are always good. But I do not use word capabilities by coincidence - more troops are only one part of that.

Q. ARE YOU SEEING A RESURGENT TALIBAN IN SOUTHERN AFGHANISTAN?
A. Reality changes every now and then. We had periods of time this year where it was very quiet, and then we had periods of time where we had more incidents. We see a change every now and then in tactics by the Taliban. I don't think, if I look at the recent past, that we see a new upheaval of Taliban activity. Just like we have done, they learn things. The term Taliban is a denominator for a group of insurgents. I'm not sure every incident we see is Taliban-related - it could be intertribal, intratribal or otherwise.

Q. HOW DO COALITION AND AFGHAN OFFICIALS DETERMINE THAT?
A. The keys are the Afghan National Army and the Afghan National Police. The Afghan National Army is very trusted by the Afghans. And the international community is working very hard to have the Afghan National Police to be as well trusted. They are the key to success. They are Afghans, after all. They understand the culture better than any of the foreign troops. The key is developing the Afghan security institutions.

Q. SEVERAL DUTCH SOLDIERS RECENTLY WROTE TO DUTCH OFFICIALS WARNING OF INSUFFICIENT LEVELS OF EQUIPMENT LIKE VEHICLE ARMOR AND AMBULANCES IN AFGHANISTAN. HAVE YOU LOOKED INTO THESE CONCERNS?
A. These were two squad leaders who were sincerely worried about materiel levels. Concern about materiel is not just a concern of the squad leader; it's a concern of the task force leader, of the commander of the Army and the chief of defense of the Netherlands. We looked into the situation and learned that the materiel readiness was over 80 percent. That's not bad at all. If you take, for instance, the Bushmaster vehicle, although we lost some in a couple of IED incidents, our people survived. That's the most important thing.
But you can't use the Bushmaster for everything. If you go on a reconnaissance mission, you have to use the systems designed for reconnaissance. But those have a different grade of armor. So every time a commander in the field sends a unit out, he will decide whether he will bring in one, two or five Bushmasters or our equivalent of the Humvees. And he is very well aware of the risks.

Q. DOES THE DUTCH MILITARY NEED MORE VEHICLES OR OTHER EQUIPMENT TO COMPLETE THE DEPLOYMENT?
A. We must look into Afghanistan and decide whether we need new materiel. There is the Bushmaster, which is one item we procured specifically for this mission. We are in the process of getting more U.S.-designed Mine Resistant Armor Protected vehicles and tactical UAVs, which we didn't have any of before. Throughout the remainder of the mission, we will look at the needs of our soldiers and commanders. If we find anything that we might need, we will see if we can find a way to procure those things.
In the normal processes of force and materiel planning, we also are procuring equipment. I am on the brink of fielding new infantry fighting vehicles. A couple years ago, we fielded new artillery systems. We deployed it right away to Afghanistan. We have some good systems, either in the process of being fielded or already fielded. I'm happy about that.
No matter what we buy today, another company will come up with something that's even better tomorrow. The problem is, I can buy it today and have absolutely good stuff, but then I cannot afford to buy immediately what is coming onto the market tomorrow. So there is a balance there.

Q. SHOULD THE DUTCH GOVERNMENT INCREASE THE ANNUAL DEFENSE BUDGET?
A. Of course I would be happy with more money. The good news here is there is a discussion going on in the Netherlands, started by the minister of defense. A very well-informed committee of experts is looking into what can we do to keep our defense organization at the level it is today and how to prepare it for the future. I have the opportunity to advise them.
If you would have asked me before 2001, 'Do you think it's feasible for you to find yourself back in Afghanistan,' I would have asked if you were out of your mind. No matter how much money you have, you will find yourself with a need for materiel that you did not foresee two or three years ago. So I'm not that worried about this so long as we have the flexibility to correct that and to do short-term, or short-track, procurements. As far as short-track procurement, Afghanistan was the first time we had seen that in a structured way.

Defense News, Published: 13 October 2008


SERVICE PROFILE
2008 Army budget: 2.1 billion euros ($2.8 billion).
Army personnel: 22,000.
Afghanistan commitment: Nearly 2,000 soldiers deployed now. From 2006-11, the Netherlands will have spent more than 1.5 billion euros on Afghan security and reconstruction.

Source: Netherlands Embassy, Washington