Maybe that such a result came out of an investigation called for by the PM at the time. Then again, his hand may have been forced by his current coalition partner, and it seems the spin is to deflect blame to the then foreign minister. (And be loud about lack of evidence for participation in the initial invasion.)

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

It's almost entirely Butler redux, if my memory serves me right of that investigation, including slobbering poodlehood to the USA.

What strikes me as relatively embarrassing is that the two Dutch secret services did in fact take the "sexed up" reports from their sister-organisations MI5 and the CIA with a grain of salt - and the Dutch reports were then consistently ignored by their own government, who preferred the Anglo-version a lot more.

A lot of this can be put on De Hoop Scheffer, though, and less on Balkenende - who comes off as incompetent, at best.

.
British investigations on sexing  up intelligence, WMDs an the Iraq War have been a waste of time. The quilty parties were relieved and the journalist, scientist or MP came under attack. In my estimate, this [excellent] report is to the point, factual, makes no political statements and was kept secret till 10 AM this morning. Quite a feat. The Commission clearly focused on the legality of the Iraq War, the U.N. Security Council resolutions and the Goldsmith Legal advice to Tony Blair. The first and foremost conclusion: the invasion of Iraq violates International Law. The goal to establish a democratic, stable and peaceful nation became in reality a nightmare and failure. Last year nearly 5,000 people died in Iraqi violence.

Dutch military intelligence was not solely dependent on sharing intelligence with the major powers, the largest Western nations. The MIVD used open sources to establish facts or likelyhood of WMDs in Iraq. They were more accurate than the bloody British, Americans, French and Italians who used intelligence for political purpose and forged documents. Jaap de Hoop Scheffer based decisions on political matters of the Atlantic alliance and disavowed the findings of his own MIVD. Just in office, it took him 45 minutes in a brain storm session (August 2002) with his top civil servants to write a policy The Netherlands would follow the U.S. and U.K., if needed also in a war because of WMDs.

When the Dutch Forces participated in the U.N. Iraq mission, they refused intelligence of the British and Americans for fear of being set up for an Iraqi ambush. The Dutch wanted to pacify, the Americans wanted to get the Dutch involved in battle and revenge killings. The Dutch province was the first to be handed over to Iraqi Army units.

"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."

Definitely gratifying, if not too surprising.  It is especially gratifying to see how CDA support for foreign adventurism benefited them domestically and in NATO, even without a large commitment of troops. Same playbook as the USA, different specific application.

As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."