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Iraq

My right hon. and learned Friend makes a valid point. Similarly, the former Chief of the Defence Staff, Lord Inge, has said:"““I don't believe we have a clear strategy in either Afghanistan or Iraq. I sense we have lost the ability to think strategically””." Is he, a field marshal, to be accused of damaging our troops by raising any questions in public? I do not believe that it is possible to argue, in a House of Commons which 80 years ago instituted an inquiry into the Dardanelles campaign while the first world war was still raging, that to raise even a suggestion of an inquiry in the future is somehow to undermine the British Army. The British Army is both tougher and more thoughtful than that. Its operations should not be used as an excuse to avoid examining any of our political processes and judgments.