Toespraak generaal T.A. Middendorp bij opening JDEAL project

Toespraak | 04-11-2014

Address by General T.A. Middendorp, at the occasion of the opening of the JDEAL project in Soesterberg, on 4 November 2014.

Preventing the boom

Colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen, a US soldier, who survived seven bomb attacks in Afghanistan, once described his experience to a reporter of ABC news.

He said: “It’s nothing like you see in the movies. You see a flash, then you hear this loud, hollow boom. It shakes your whole body. It shakes you to the core. You feel the compression, you feel the shock wave. Dirt flies, rocks fly, all kinds of stuff flies around. It sucks all the air out. You’re deafened for a time period, confusion, ears ringing. And you get that sulfur, that smoke smell...”

Ladies and Gentlemen, this soldier, this man, survived. And he was able to tell the news reporter what it’s like when a bomb explodes almost right under your feet. Many soldiers, however, cannot tell what it is like. Because they did not survive.

Sadly, the statistics support that. According to the website ICasualties.org almost three thousand Coalition soldiers lost their lives in Afghanistan, because they fell victim to what we know as Improvised Explosive Devices.

Many others were badly injured. Others, like the Dutch corporal Dennis Van Esch. I know him personally because I happened to be commander in Uruzgan when he was injured.

Dennis could have been one of these soldiers you see on the picture behind me. He was also patrolling the streets and fields of Afghanistan with his buddies. Until he was hurled out of his armoured vehicle when a bomb exploded. This was on the 20th of June, 2009.

Dennis went into a coma. His legs were irreparably injured, his jaw was fractured, he suffered a loss of kidney-function, as well as brain damage. The surgeons did not expect him to survive.

After several days Dennis was evacuated to the Netherlands, so his family could say goodbye. But miraculously, he survived. After ten weeks in coma, Dennis woke up!

That was five years ago. And up to this day he is still recovering. This is him... All that is left of his legs are two short stubs.

Today, Dennis is proving that life goes on after devastating injuries. A life worth living. A different life. Not fighting enemy combatants, but fighting a long battle to overcome his injuries and to give new meaning to his life.

Ladies and Gentlemen, it is on behalf of Dennis and all wounded warriors, and on behalf of all the other men, and women who dedicate themselves every day to peace and security - in the Netherlands, and elsewhere - that I’m standing here today.

It is my - no our - responsibility to keep them safe. But, as we all know, Improvised Explosive Devices are very hard to counter. Not only because they can take so many forms, but also because they are continuously developing.

I remember being engaged in an unending cycle in Afghanistan; it was - and still is - an arms race. When we found ways to defeat the early microwave triggering devices for the bombs, the insurgents created more sophisticated triggers.

When we figured out how to defeat the new mobile phone driven triggers, the enemy started to employ infrared triggers.

When we placed heavier armour on our vehicles, the insurgents increased the explosive power of the IEDs.

Let me tell you: IEDs may be a “poor men’s weapon”, it is a painfully hard tactic for any military to defend against.

An expert at a military academic institution described our battle once as “hide and pray: hiding behind more armour, and praying that there is a technical solution to all this”.

He was right. Partly. Partly, because this fight is about more than just improving our protection.

In Afghanistan that became very clear to us. It became clear that we should not only spend time right of the boom, but also move left of the boom. Meaning that we should go after the guys who are building these bombs.

After all, there are financers, there are people who supply and build IEDs, people transporting them, placing them and people detonating them.

Mapping out this network - and thus being able to interrupt the production process - should enable us to prevent IED attacks in the future.

Intelligence, that is what it is really all about. As Sun Tzu stated centuries ago: “if you know your enemy and know yourself, your victory will not stand in doubt”.

That is why in 2011, the contributing member states under the leadership of France, developed the Multinational Theatre Exploitation Laboratory Demonstrator in Afghanistan.

This laboratory consisted of a number of standard ISO containers, jammed with forensic equipment to develop intelligence for our local commanders.

And now - thanks to the participating member states and the European Defence Agency - its equipment will be stationed here, in the Netherlands.

Now known as the Joint Deployable Exploitation and Analysis Laboratory - JDEAL.

JDEAL will ensure that our capability, and the experience we gained in Afghanistan, will continue to be used.

So our lessons-learned on countering IEDs, earned in blood during the past 13 years at war, will not be in vain.

After all, ladies and gentlemen, our battle is still ongoing.

The fact that the ISAF-mission is coming to an end, does not mean that the IED threat will disappear from our battlefields.

IEDs will continue to be a weapon of choice for insurgents, terrorists and criminals across the globe.

Last week I was in Mali, and I found that this threat is on the rise there as well, already taking the lives of several soldiers...

Why? Because IEDs are simple to produce. Because the knowledge and the components are easy to obtain. Because it is a cheap and a low-risk weapon, with a high impact.

Consequently, IEDs will not easily disappear from the scene, and technology and tactics will continue to evolve. Just as enemies will continue to seek to overcome our countermeasures.

We cannot accept this. This work is about preventing our men and women from being killed or injured.

But it’s more than that. It is also about preventing potentially decisive secondary effects.

After all, each soldier killed is one too many, but it also affects the morale of the units and the public perception of the mission. Therefore we must act.

Today we demonstrate that we are able and willing to do so, that we are able to take action before the next brutal attack.

Let us continue to do so in the future! Let us keep detecting and attacking IED networks.

So we can stay ahead of this deadly game.

For wounded warriors like Dennis, and for generations of soldiers to come.

So they are able to win any fight, and to keep doing the extraordinary things that only soldiers can do in the fight for peace and security.

That is what it’s all about.

Thank you.