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Foreign Affairs and Defence

Sometimes one wishes that one had not given way. I will not bother to respond to that. Although we welcome the announcement of the withdrawal and hope that we will get some more details on the record in this House, that prompts the question, as the right hon. Member for Richmond, Yorks said, of when we are going to get the long-discussed and long-hoped-for inquiry. Earlier this year, the Government said that they were in favour of it in principle, and in our exchanges with the Foreign Secretary we moved him some way towards trying to define when it can be held. So far, the line has been that it can be held when the troops have completed their mission. My hon. Friend the Member for North Devon (Nick Harvey) sought clarification of what that meant, but he did not get much. It clearly does not mean that every single member of our troops has to be withdrawn, but we still do not know what the level of draw-down needs to be. More information from Ministers, either now or at the end of the debate, would be very welcome. Like the right hon. Member for Richmond, Yorks, we will be pursuing the Government until they announce the inquiry and wanting to know its terms. It must have a full remit to ensure that it covers all the remaining questions. There is no doubt that it should have been held several years ago, because memories and information sources degrade with the passage of time. That is very unfortunate, and it undermines the public benefit of the inquiry. Nevertheless, the case for it remains, and we hope that it will be announced as soon as possible. I want to turn to the key issue of Afghanistan. The hon. Member for Pontypridd rightly talked about corruption and the fact that the rule of law does not exist in Afghanistan. He laid much of the blame for that at the door of President Karzai, and he may well be right. As he will know, my noble and right hon. Friend Lord Ashdown was due to go out there to play a role rather like that which he played in Bosnia, but his appointment was ultimately vetoed by President Karzai. We have both long suspected that that was because President Karzai did not want someone who was going to stand up for the rule of law and stand up to corrupt practices. I share much of the hon. Gentleman's analysis. One of the issues following President Obama's inauguration on 20 January will be the demand for Britain and other NATO countries to send more troops. Like the right hon. Member for Richmond, Yorks, Liberal Democrat Members support the case for a modest additional deployment of UK troops, but we want to be absolutely sure, like the military commentators, that there is not a one-for-one shift from our troops in Iraq to our troops in Afghanistan. Our forces are overstretched, and many of our troops are tired. They need more rest and recuperation; otherwise, long-term damage will be done to our abilities. We will support a modest increase in our deployment there, but the truth is that other countries need to take up their share of the burden. The Prime Minister rightly said, following the Queen's Speech on 3 December, that the review in which Britain is participating focuses very much on that burden-sharing issue. It would be good if we could hear more about that when the Minister replies to the debate.