As recently as December, the Dutch position on Afghanistan seemed clear: their troops would leave soon. “The new American president Obama can call me 10 times, but our mission in Oruzgan stops in August 2010,” Eimert van Middelkoop, the defence minister, told De Telegraaf newspaper.

But even he could not keep up with how quickly his country was changing policy. The Dutch are now indicating they might stay in Afghanistan after all, a shift likely to please the new American president.