That amount of troops, even light infantry, would make quite a force for defending the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba - the question again is if Curacao is nuked - if it is then you would lose much of those forces in the attacks (you would think several of the Curacao militia units would be destroyed in the attack) - however the ones formed in Aruba would still be around as would any moved to guard the other islands
Given that you could see that 1998-2000 may have been marked by several bloody encounters between the French and the Dutch - which could explain the reduced numbers of French troops on duty in Martinique and Guyana - i.e. the numbers are down due to fighting with the Netherlands Marines (both regular troops, current serving militia and the mobilized security troops) in the Antilles
would also explain the large size of the New American force they were building up to take on Aruba - they aren't going to take on a scattered force of police and militia they are going to take on what's left of the Marine forces there after the fighting with the French - which probably would still be pretty large by Caribbean military standards in 2000
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