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Counter-Insurgency (Iraq/Afghanistan)

I can say on behalf of us all that that will be our loss. We hope that my hon. Friend will be able to extract herself from the seat of power here and come to the other debate to make a contribution, for she has made a very significant contribution not only today but repeatedly in the important matter of providing the correct defence equipment for our armed forces as they experience constant change in the threat that they face and the tactics of the enemy. Our responsibility as Members of Parliament—clearly, it falls most heavily on the shoulders of the Minister—is to ensure that our armed forces have the best equipment that we can give them. The essential burden of my hon. Friend's case was that we need more appropriate equipment, which needs to be better value for money than what is available at the moment. She also made the case about ““next war-itis.”” If she had been a clergyman, she would have said, ““I take my text from one Robert Gates,”” who made those remarks about the attitude of the military. I just warn her against being too zealous in going down the route of concentrating wholly and exclusively on the immediate, for we face a much more complex world now than that which we faced when the cold war was at its height and we could see exactly where the threat was coming from. The threat is now all around us. We know what the threat is from insurgents in Afghanistan and Iraq, but I would be very nervous about dismissing Mr. Putin's intentions in building up his armed forces. Although I agree with my hon. Friend that it is unlikely that our shores face attack in the foreseeable future, it would be a foolish politician who decided to take the gamble that we could safely ignore consideration of, for example, renewal of our nuclear deterrent or, indeed, some of our other capabilities that will not be required in the immediate future.