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Proceeding contribution from Baroness Falkner of Margravine (Liberal Democrat) in the House of Lords on Wednesday, 14 October 2009. It occurred during Ministerial statement on Afghanistan and Pakistan.


Afghanistan and Pakistan

My Lords, the noble Baroness the Leader of the House continues to assert that we have here a well founded strategy. We are questioning her so vigorously because it seems to be a set of aspirations and conditions rather than a strategy. I say that because a strategy should incorporate what will happen if the three conditions are not met. That is missing today. I say with respect to the noble Baroness that the bottom line of page 4 says, ""which will be put into effect once these conditions are met"." On that note she tells us that Sir Jock Stirrup and Sir David Richards are completely behind the increase in force levels. Will she also tell us what will happen if the conditions are not met? What will be the positions of Sir Jock Stirrups and Sir David Richards? Finally, given the Government’s rosy view of what is happening in Pakistan—which does not seem to take into account the divided political parties, the infiltrated army, which we saw only this week in an attack, and a population that does not possess any resilience—what will we do if our strategy of Pakistanisation fails?


Secondary information

Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
713 c237-8 
Session
2008-09
Chamber / Committee
House of Lords chamber
Subjects
Armed forces Deployment Development aid Defence equipment Elections Police Peacekeeping operations Politics and government Pakistan Terrorism Training Afghanistan al Qaeda Taliban Military aid Improvised explosive devices
Link
View this Proceeding contribution on www.publications.parliament.uk