Of course it's very blunt, but he does have (sort of) a point. When the first Dutch casualty fell in Afghanistan, the newspapers and television were full of stories that we should retreat and how tragic everything was. But come on, there was a war going on. You can expect some people to die. Were we sending them in expecting them to have the best time of their lives and all come back completely healthy?
Also, no one seemed to give a damn when the reports came out detailing the deaths of a lot of innocent civilians (not by Dutch troops btw, but still...).