Oral question asked in the House of Commons, by Andrew MacKay (Conservative). It was answered on Monday, 12 December 2005 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.

Iraq

Question: As Christmas approaches, will the Secretary of State convey to our troops in Iraq the heartfelt thanks of every Member and that our thoughts will be with them at what will inevitably be a difficult time? Would the Secretary of State care to comment on President Bush's recent remark that, sadly, the reconstruction process is going much slower than we wished because of the security difficulties? What is the Secretary of State doing to ensure that those security difficulties are lessened in Basra and the areas for which we have responsibility?

Answer: I join the right hon. Gentleman as, I am sure, does the whole House in sending our thanks and gratitude, especially at this time of year, to servicemen and women who are away from their families. I was able to do that in person about nine days ago when I visited our troops in Iraq. It is true that developing democracy, security, and the economy and civil society in Iraq is slower than we would wish for this simple reason: the Iraqi democrats, with our support, are building democracy, security and the economy, but the terrorists are trying to destroy it. They will not win. On democracy, despite the threats of the terrorists, 8.5 million people came out to vote in January; more than 10 million came out to vote in the referendum in October and 15 million have registered for the vote this Thursday. Nor will the terrorists win when it comes to building the security forces. When I first came to the Dispatch Box as Secretary of State I think I said that we had trained and capable security forces in Iraq to the number of 160,000. I can tell the House today that the number is more than 214,000, and 80 per cent. of all operations involve Iraqi security forces. Though the terrorists may do their worst, the entrenchment of democracy, security and stability in Iraq will continue and we will continue to help the Iraqi people to do that for as long as is necessary.

Secondary information