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Iraq

As I said at the beginning of my statement, I have always said that we can provide an important military component in the security of Iraq, but military means will not solve Iraq’s problems. We need to develop governance and exploit economic opportunities on the basis of the security that we can provide. I speak at the Dispatch Box on behalf of the Government, but principally as the Secretary of State for Defence. The Foreign Office, the Department for International Development, and, indeed, other Government Departments, have worked appropriately with elements of the Iraqi Government, at both national and regional level, to ensure that their capacity and capability are developed to do exactly what my hon. Friend knows is necessary to build up democratic and Government institutions. To those who think that that country is disintegrating, may I say that its democratic institutions and its Government departments may not be perfect—they are working in very difficult circumstances—but they are all functioning. Some of them are not functioning very well and some are severely challenged, but they are all functioning. That is a long way away from, for example, challenges that we have faced in other areas where we have tried to bring countries out of conflict and have succeeded.