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Defence Policy

I rise because, of the 37 names that, sadly, the Prime Minister read out yesterday, five were those of fusiliers of my regiment. My thoughts, and, I am sure, those of the House, are with their families and friends. It will be no surprise to the Minister that I revert to Afghanistan because it currently dominates our defence thinking. Let me start by briefly making the obvious point that soldiers buy time and space, but politicians must provide the political solution. It was true in Northern Ireland, it is true in Iraq and it will be true in Afghanistan. I urge the Minister and the Government not only to explain to the British electorate what we are doing in Afghanistan, but to use their offices as best they can to try to find that political solution. Without it, our forces become simply occupying forces, with no end in sight. After eight years in Afghanistan, on any objective measure, we are not succeeding. Poppy production has soared from 2001 levels. The worry is that the profits are finding their way to funding insurgency. According to the United Nations, it is no coincidence that, despite record production levels, the price of opium has not fallen. That leads the UN to believe that stockpiles are being created to fund insurgency. Meanwhile, women's rights have not been helped. If anything, because of laws that have been passed in recent years, women's rights and liberties have been eroded. The Afghan Senator Namati has accused President Karzai of being worse than the Mullah Omar Taliban junta on protecting women's rights. Then we have the election. If anyone believes that the election has any credibility, they need to look again at how and under what conditions it was fought. There were reports by independent observers that the ballot boxes were already full of returned voting slips before they were opened to the voters. That does not help matters. As General McChrystal said in a welcome speech at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the position is deteriorating, and victory will depend not on killing more Taliban fighters but on winning people's confidence. Too many Afghans are alienated by President Karzai's widespread corruption. We need a political plan and solution. The election did not achieve that and the soldiers cannot achieve it—it is not their job. We hear nothing from the Government about the political solution. In effect, we have a vacuum. While it continues, the troops are nothing more than an occupying force, with no end in sight. While we try to find a political solution, we must ensure that our forces are fully resourced and up to strength. When I intervened on the Secretary of State, I drew parallels with Northern Ireland—at the height of the troubles, there were 20,000-plus troops there; in Helmand province, despite American support, we have only up to 10,000 troops with the latest deployments. Even more important, the lack of helicopter support means that perhaps too many troops are being put unnecessarily at risk because they should be flown to their destinations rather than transported by road. Until we get that right, and despite the talk of more helicopters, we are well behind the American forces' ratio of helicopters to troops. That must be examined. It is no coincidence that the percentage of American casualties accounted for by IEDs is significantly lower than it is for British casualties. Helicopters have a key role to play in that. I am trying to be brief because others wish to speak. The bottom line is that while we are trying to find a political solution, we must resource our troops properly. I urge the Government to do more to find such a solution. Politicians alone can do that; soldiers can only buy time and space. If the Government get requests from the military on the ground, they should listen to them. They should ensure that we properly resource, through manpower and equipment, our commitment to the region. As Brigadier Butler put it, we should either go deep, go long or go home.