Dutch forces have been in Uruzgan since 2006 The Dutch government has collapsed over disagreements within the governing coalition on extending troop deployments in Afghanistan.After marathon talks, Christian Democratic Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende announced that the Labour Party was quitting the government. Mr Balkenende has been considering a Nato request for Dutch forces to stay in Afghanistan beyond 2010. But Labour, the second-largest coalition party, has opposed the move. Just under 2,000 Dutch service personnel have been serving in the southern Afghan province of Uruzgan since 2006, with 21 killed. Their deployment has already been extended once. Where there is no trust, it is difficult to work together Jan Peter Balkenende The troops should have returned home in 2008, but they stayed on because no other Nato nation offered replacements. The commitment is now due to end in August 2010. The Dutch parliament voted in October 2009 that it must definitely stop by then, although the government has yet to endorse that vote.[Read more...]