In 2006, when Dutch forces occupied Uruzgan province in southern Afghanistan, they expected to wage a traditional counterinsurgency campaign focused on winning the support of the local population. "We're not here to fight the Taliban. We're here to make the Taliban irrelevant," said Dutch commander Hans van Griensven. An Australian reconstruction team subsequently joined the Dutch battlegroup, to help rebuild schools and roads, and to provide vocational training to local workers.
Dutch and Australian troops were working at a pair of schools in July 2007 when the Taliban attacked. A suicide bomber blew himself up outside one school in the provincial capital of Tarin Kowt, killing a Dutch soldier and as many as 10 Afghan children. Meanwhile, a Taliban infantry team assaulted Afghan tribal police garrisoned in nearby Chora. The resulting battle -- pitting Dutch helicopters, artillery and fighter jets versus hundreds of Taliban fighters -- represented exactly the kind of heavy combat that van Griensven had tried to avoid. ...