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Iraq

My Lords, I have no difficulty agreeing that the militias have no alignment with the idea of a free and democratic society. They would rather shoot people than encourage them to vote. There are a number of militias, and the prospects for engaging any of them by potentially drawing them into security forces on a legitimate basis, and holding weapons that are legitimately held under the control of a single authority—namely, the state—in relation to the use of violence, must be an option with some of the militias, as it is in resolving similar conflicts in other parts of the world. In some cases, I fear that it may not come to that; that is why the Iraqi Government and their forces must be in a position in which they can deal with those militias. In saying that, I do not for a second underestimate the difficulty, but that is the bottom line—the reality.