The Dutch cabinet had fallen. The Labour Party (the Dutch one) had departed from the governing coalition, headed by a right-wing politician, because it has had enough of seeing Dutch soldiers shed their blood in the futile war in Afghanistan.
Of course, the leader of the Dutch Labour Party had not taken this step solely due to abstract principles. Like all politicians, they can read opinion polls, and the polls indicate that 76% of the Dutch public are opposed to the idea of "reinforcing" the units of their country's army posted to Afghanistan. Elections are due there in the near future, and there are some grounds for assuming that a more dovish posture might be rewarded by the voters.
A pity Ehud Barak does not read Dutch.
