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Defence Policy

The helicopters came down in the Helmand valley, well away from patrol bases, and a judgment must be made by people whose lives are on the line, not by us here in the House of Commons, about the balance of risk between destroying equipment to prevent it from falling into the hands of the enemy and taking risk to preserve it. We must accept that we are not in a position to take those judgments. Those are dangerous environments, and we must support our armed forces in taking those judgments and back them up when they do so. If that costs us equipment, it costs us equipment.