Oral question asked in the House of Commons, by Peter Tapsell (Conservative). It was answered on Monday, 16 July 2007 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.

Afghanistan

Question: The right hon. Gentleman and his two predecessors as Secretary of State for Defence have been dismissive of my warnings about the unwisdom of our latest invasion of Afghanistan, but will he at least take seriously the speech in another place last week by Field Marshal Lord Inge, to which my hon. Friend the Member for Gainsborough (Mr. Leigh) has already referred, but to whose supplementary the Minister chose not to reply? The Field Marshal, who himself has recently visited Afghanistan, said that the situation in Afghanistan is"““much, much more serious than people want to recognise””" and spoke of"““strategic failure””. —[Official Report, House of Lords, 11 July 2007; Vol. 693, c. 1467-68.]" How does that measure up against these interminable, bland replies by the right hon. Gentleman? - What about Lord Inge?

Answer: One of the challenges that I face is that any answers to the hon. Gentleman’s questions would seem bland. He consistently questions me on this and I pay tribute to his consistency. The fact that we disagree does not necessarily mean that he is right and I am wrong. Earlier, I gave a litany of other experts, organisations and representatives of the international community who do not share his view. - The first point that I need to make is that our deployment of troops to Helmand province was not an invasion. We were invited there by the sovereign Government of Afghanistan in the context of a United Nations Security Council resolution. I fully respect the views of the hon. Gentleman and Lord Inge on this, and I consider them carefully. However, the hon. Gentleman does not have a monopoly of views among those who have expertise in relation to military issues, and his views are not supported by other advice that I receive from people who are as well qualified as he is.

Secondary information