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Iraq

As one who has supported our Iraq operations from the beginning, I am enormously pleased that the Prime Minister has been able to make this statement today. I believe that our troops should remain there until they are no longer required; there should be no artificial timetables. We all know that the real pressure on our troop numbers comes from the pressure to deploy into Afghanistan. Is not the reality that that pressure draws more on us because our allies in Europe, such as the French and the Germans, still refuse point blank to do what they voted for, which is to get into places like Helmand and provide some proper support for the Afghan Government? Is the Prime Minister minded to urge President Sarkozy to stop travelling around Europe telling everyone to raise a defunct treaty, and instead attempt to bully them into putting some troops on the ground to support us?