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International Terrorism

It is almost six years to the day since the invasion of Iraq. I am sorry that the Home Secretary does not feel that the report should be accurate enough to recognise the mistakes that have been made because of that intervention. I quote from page 23, which says that""in 2003, radical Islamist groups emerged in and travelled to Iraq to take part in what they regarded as a new jihad"." Further down the page, it says:""After 2003 Iraq was used as a base for terrorist attacks"." Does she not recognise that our going there with a military campaign left a power vacuum, which allowed al-Qaeda—the very terrorist group that she spoke about—into Iraq, and allowed it to operate from that country? Will she not put her hand up and say, "Mistakes have been made, and lessons must be learned"? If there is any reason why there should be an inquiry into the war in Iraq, this is it, because exactly the same mistakes are now being made in Afghanistan. ... Al-Qaeda was never there before the invasion.