Oral question asked in the House of Commons, by Tobias Ellwood (Conservative). It was answered on Tuesday, 25 March 2008 on behalf of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Iraq

Question: On 23 May 2003, Jerry Bremer, head of the coalition provincial authority, ordered the dissolution of the Iraqi army. A week before that, he had disbanded the Ba'ath party, alienating tens of thousands of Iraqis, including some 40,000 teachers and as many nurses and doctors. Will the Minister now concede that those were two of the biggest schoolboy errors in recent peacekeeping history and explain why Britain supported those decisions?

Answer: I do not think that ““schoolboy errors”” is the right description. I know that the hon. Gentleman understands that tremendous resentment was felt towards the Ba'ath party and the Iraqi army for what they had done over the previous 10 years, including the appalling events in Kurdistan and the massacre of Shi'a s in the south. If he is asking whether I think, with the benefit of hindsight, that it was a mistake to do that, I shall defer to the hon. Member for Mid-Norfolk (Mr. Simpson) who is, among other things, a military historian, and can give his hon. Friend a more considered view. I think that it is easy to look at things with hindsight and to assume that the facts as we now know them were apparent at the time.

Secondary information