Oral question asked in the House of Lords, by Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean (Labour). It was answered on Wednesday, 11 October 2006.

Iraq

Question: My Lords, does my noble friend agree that any publication about any shortcomings must be consistent with the safety of our troops on the ground at the moment? The idea of publishing something that feeds a media frenzy rather than serving the real purposes of our troops serving on the ground in Iraq would, for many of us, be a tragedy.

Answer: My Lords, I am grateful to my noble friend. She is absolutely right; there is obviously a real limitation to the detail into which we can go. Having spoken to operational commanders and troops on the ground, I must say that they find it difficult that the emphasis is on the difficulties and that no real recognition is given to the progress that has been made. The feeling, which is shared by people in DfID, is that the progress that has been made on the reconstruction effort in very difficult circumstances is not properly reflected in the discussion.

Secondary information