Iraq: Future Strategic Relationship

I entirely agree. I am not sure that the Christians who have received such appalling treatment, the 4.7 million refugees and the families who have seen loved ones killed are all that happy about the invasion. They may have wished to see the back of Saddam, but they probably did not want to see it at the cost of the huge loss of human lives and the misery that has been caused. I want to make it clear that the Liberal Democrats agree with what the Secretary of State said about the role and expertise of the British armed forces. We completely agree that the British armed forces have done a fantastic job; whether or not we agree with the Iraq war, we can put aside such disagreements in acknowledging how fantastic and world-leading our troops have been in the way they have gone about their security tasks and helped to rebuild Iraq. We part company with the Secretary of State's on some of his analysis, however. On the future of Iraq, as well as its current state and what happened in the past, I want to urge a note of caution that comes not from my own analysis but from reading some of the analysis done by General Petraeus, and in particular the update on Iraq that he gave to Congress and the President in October last year. There are many risks ahead of us that the Secretary of State did not bring out. I understand why, but it is very important that in looking ahead we are not complacent. Although the Liberal Democrats strongly support the decision on the withdrawal of the troops and wish it had come sooner, there were always going to be risks when the troops were being withdrawn and directly afterwards.