The second literary boot camp for Dutch soldiers who are interested in writing about their experiences in Afghanistan was held today.
At the first time that this literary boot camp was organized (June 2007) not too many soldiers showed up, I believe the group consisted of ten people, and today the turnout was modest as well, but some of the texts are promising.
Yesterday a Dutch newspaper (NRC Handelsblad) published a piece on the op-ed page by Daan Everts, NATO-ambassador in Kabul.
The text consisted of eight rhetorical questions, which Mr. Everts managed to answer in a hilarious manner.
“Do the Afghan people want foreign troops on their soil? Yes and no. The presence of foreign troops on their soil is for the Afghan people a necessary evil.” How does Mr. Everts know this? Do we know of any reliable polls that were conducted in Afghanistan recently? The newspaper published this article without any comments.
Well, it’s not easy to fill the op-ed page every day.