Everytime I saw someone supports/against one of the three events above, usually there will be another person will bring another of the three events as an counter arguments or argument for supporting it. Usually it goes like this.
A: The gov't is right labelling those OPM thugs as terrorists! They're killing civilians and construction workers!
B: Yeah, but you basically doing the same during war of Independence. Your army is terrorists for Dutch side and Bung Tomo's group also slaughtering civilians (Bersiap)
or...
A: I support Palestinian fighting against Israel
B: That's good! You also should support Papuan fights against Indonesian colonialists because they are both fighting against imperialists!
or...
A: Look at this Westerling's army doing massacre just because he didn't find his target!
B: Well duh, you too doing massacre to South Moluccans/Papuans. What's the difference?
or countless other variants of the dialogue above.
Now, for common people these conflicts on the surface might look same and can be oversimplified as "fighting for freedom" or "fighting against terrorists" depending on which side they're picking. But are they really comparable as "apple to apple" one to another?
I'm curious about the way the Dutch went from no army at all in 1945 to deployment on the other side of the globe very shortly after.
- Was there a need to rebuild the army from scratch or did equipment and expertise survive the German occupation?
- What happened with the draft? Were all people that should've been drafted in 1940-1945 simply enlisted all at once when the war had ended? Did this cause any problems?
- Were there issues with the physical health of soldiers, e.g. because of malnutrition in the Hunger Winter?
- Were there any combat issues in Indonesia that could be attributed to a lack of training or preparation?
- Many Dutch veterans of the Indonesian Independence Wars seem to have suffered from psychological issues such as PTSD. Was this war actually particularly hard to cope with for the average soldier, and is there any particular reason for that?
So my grandfathers fought in the indonesian war of 1947 to 1949 i never knew my grandfathers they fought in the dutch army during the conflict but me and my dad have been to many ma y war museums but its a forgotten war like the korean war im looking for the unit one of my grandpa's fought in it had a logo with a crokodile in it thats all i know my dad told me his father didnt want to talk about it he only told him a few things later on when my dad was also in the army but not a lot and my other grandfather he shared a bit more but i dont know any of his stories
So i kinda want to know what unit he was in in the several dutch army museums i have been i have seen no info of his division or unit
