Defense is like fire insurance, veterans say. “You have no ass on it until a fire breaks out”

Ask Wouter, a bumpy veteran with bald head and red beard that served in Afghanistan, among others, why there should be more money to defense, and he looks at you tightly. Look around you, he says, “at what is happening in the world.” Ask the Isaac, a fifties who was broadcast to Bosnia and is now training new soldiers, and he says: “This is not a serious question, right?” Start against Carina Nobel, Bosnia twice and once Kosovo, about the 5 percent who will spend NATO member states on Defense, and she starts to shine.

Three days after it was about the future of Defense in The Hague, it was mainly about the past on Saturday at Malieveld in The Hague. During the annual Veterans Day, due to the NATO summit this year without the parade, it is full of men and women who know that the price of war and peace is not only captured in percentage points of GDP.

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Veterans hit each other on the shoulders, toasts with a cup of beer. At a table near the long line for a nasi meal are fragile veterans who still served in New Guinea (1950-1962). Further on is a group of men in shirts of the Regiment Enjoy Groups, the oldest unit of the army. Some veterans have spelled their awards on their chest, others wear a beret, or a T-shirt that reminds us of their broadcasts with abbreviations. ISAF (Afghanistan). Unifil (Lebanon). KFOR (Kosovo).

There are also stalls that are recruited for defense: with professional recruiters, or positions that young people have to warm up. A diver in a bowl of water plays butter-cheese and eggs with children. And there is a ‘Marine Experience’. Children sit on VR glasses and turn around a bit. “It was … intense,” says a kid of about eight years old when he has dropped the glasses. He looks embarrassed. What he saw? “People who shoot.”

Witcher every year

What do veterans think of the dozens of billions of euros that will go to Defense in the coming years? According to them, where should they go? And where should the money come from?

Should it come from the police? From healthcare? From education? No, of course not. But somewhere it will hurt

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According to Peter, the Ministry of Defense is like a fire insurance for your house. “You have no ass. Until there is a fire.” Wouter: “Just like healthcare or police, it doesn’t yield any money at all. But you only miss it when you need it.” And it is necessary, they think. All those conflicts in the world, even in Europe. But does it necessarily have to be 5 percent? They doubt. Peter: “That may not be necessary for every country. For example, wages here are higher than in Spain. Perhaps more should be looked at stiff power: what is needed to get it in order?”

They know where the money should go. The staff is underpaid. “Defense now opens the front door to young people,” says Wouter, “but a lot of staff leaves through the back door.” She also herself: Wouter now has a youth care company.

Black shoes in the desert

But the Ministry of Defense is attractive, says Carina Nobel. “The salary is of course less than in business. But you can grow. I got my driver’s license for trucks.” As a result, she was able to grow as a forier who brought food around to the driver of large military trucks.

Defense now opens the front door to young people. But a lot of staff disappears through the back door.

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Other veterans say: it starts with equipment. Ed Bovenschen (67) went to the Navy at the age of fifteen and won 42 years later at the Air Force. “In Afghanistan, some colleagues had a complete desert equipment. But others walked on their black shoes because there was too little.” And during exercises he experienced that they received a note: “You have ten patterns.” Everything, he says, “was sold and canceled.”

A lack of equipment has a demotivating effect, veterans think. Isaac, who is now working for Defense again, saw, for example, that it “hurts” with nurses if they “have to go out with old or not good material.” That is also why staff leaves, he thinks.

Without good equipment, says Noppie Rouwhorst (55), “you get over.” It starts with ‘guns and bullets’. He once went to Defense for admiration for the Canadians and Americans who had liberated Europe. He also wanted to do that when she sent him to Bosnia for four months. It would be like in war films, he thought: one party is good, the other is bad. “But on the spot it turned out that there were only losers. Everyone was bad.”

Anxiety porn

The mission “has influenced everything in my life.” How he looks at people – not so much more negative, especially more ‘more realistic’. But he also learned about the importance of Cameradschap: “That is why I am for reintroducing military service. We live in an individualized society. In a service year, military or social, you learn to work together and about the importance of norms and values.”

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Where should all those billions for defense come from? Veteran Wouter calls it “difficult.” The care has shortages, he says, “the police too. I really don’t know to be honest.” Ed Bovenschen knows: according to him, asylum seekers get billions every year, if you no longer do that, then the money can go to defense in no time. “It’s that simple.” Isaac: “Should it come from the police? From the care? Of education? No, of course not. But somewhere it will hurt.”

Van Sijmen Mook (62), Lebanon veteran, is not necessary anyway. “The country has been cut back for twelve years. Now we are being scared of a Russian threat. I don’t see it. It is fear porn. The Americans can come in everywhere, but if the Russians do it is suddenly wrong.”

Veteran Nobel sees that differently. She is, she says, “Glad everyone has been shaken awake.” No, “nobody wants war. But you have to be prepared for it.”

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