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Iraq

I thank the Prime Minister for his statement. Is not the absolutely clear message that should go out from across this House that the British armed forces who have served in Iraq and are still serving there are doing, and have done, an incredible job in difficult circumstances? When you sit in the back of one of those transport planes in Basra, you meet people who have been to Iraq three times, four times, five times and sometimes even more. They have given great service and the whole country can be incredibly proud of them. I join the Prime Minister in praising the Iraqi army and Prime Minister Maliki for imposing the rule of law, and for doing the important job of taking on the militias. The Prime Minister was quite right to mention that. On the question of troop numbers, clearly everyone wants to see our forces withdrawn from Iraq as soon as it is practical to do so, but does the Prime Minister agree that, looking back over the past year, we can see two important lessons to learn? The first is that we should not make premature announcements about troop withdrawals that cannot then be delivered. Instead, we should set the conditions that need to be met to achieve our objectives, and the troop withdrawals can take place when they have been made. The Prime Minister said last October that"““we plan from next spring to reduce force numbers in southern Iraq to a figure of 2,500.””—[Official Report, 8 October 2007; Vol. 464, c. 23.]" Yet currently—for good reason—there are more than 4,000 servicemen and women stationed in Iraq. Can the Prime Minister clarify the figures for Operation Telic as a whole? When servicemen and women serving at sea are included, the figure is more than 6,000. Can the Prime Minister confirm that a combination of written answers and the Ministry of Defence website suggests that the figure has actually increased since October, when the Prime Minister promised that 1,000 troops would come home by Christmas?