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Ministry of Defence

The hon. Member for Rhymney as well as Merthyr Tydfil has taken a quarter of the time remaining for my speech. I am not the only one concerned about the change in nature of the Afghan people’s view of foreign forces. In May 2005, following reports of abuse of Afghan detainees by American forces, the President of Afghanistan said that he feared that popular resentment was building against the international military presence and the Americans in particular. It will be difficult for the Afghan people to differentiate the Americans and us. I saw that the British general in Iraq who was interviewed on ““Panorama”” the other day was wearing American stars on his uniform. In one sense, I have always been a supporter of inter-operability and operating together, but if our soldiers are putting that on their uniforms so that the Americans know that we are on their side, ordinary Afghan people might be forgiven a greater degree of confusion. I commend to the House the brief and authoritative speech by my hon. Friend the Member for Gravesham, who has considerable knowledge and expertise in this area. I look forward to the report of the Defence Committee on the deployment to Afghanistan. It is extremely important that Members who have knowledge of the scale of the task for the soldiers whom we are sending to Afghanistan warn the House and, through the House, the country at large, of the difficulties that they will face. The House can then come to proper conclusions about the resources that they will require to carry out the role that we have invited them to perform, or whether they should carry out that role at all.