Oh, so it's okay when the Times says it?

Following Sec. Gates's ill-advised comments about NATO soldiers deploying to Afghanistan poorly trained for counterinsurgency, this was the lead headline in the Times of London today: Half-trained Troops to Fight the Taliban

So maybe it wasn't the Dutch Army about which Gates was speaking.

On the other hand, there is nothing wrong with sending half-trained troops to fight the Taliban. Taliban fighters are only half-trained as well, and so long as you value the life of a British soldier as much as you do that of a Taliban militant, no problem!