As the French were licking their wounds, the question in the title above was posed to me on social media by a dear friend of old, who expressed his fear that the French might invoke NATO’s Article 5 and that, consequently, he might himself be drafted into the Dutch military, like the good old days before the 1990s.

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As I sit here safely on my living room sofa following the horrifying developments in Paris from far away, on TV, the internet and social media, I’ll confess I’m as much in shock about these terrorist attacks as the next guy. I feel for the French, who saw (as it stands) over 150 of their sons, brothers, sisters, friends, whatever, mowed down or blown up by Islamic crazies tonight. The gravity and importance of the events need not be stressed here.

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