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Afghanistan

My hon. Friend knows that we never comment whatsoever on special forces and what they do, but we are in Afghanistan to give the Afghan Government space to develop the skills in governance and security, so that when we do leave we do not leave behind an ungoverned space into which, as a security vacuum, elements of transnational terrorism are once again drawn. I sometimes wonder whether the general public remember the chronology correctly. I was in the United States last week, where a woman said to me, "If we hadn't been in Afghanistan, we would never have had 9/11." We need to remember that we did not seek this confrontation; it was brought to our streets and cities against our will. We did not seek this conflict, but we will see it through to its conclusion.