Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs and Defence

If the principal countries with a military presence in Afghanistan named a date, it would change the mindset in all sorts of ways—ways that would not be helpful. It would encourage those who are against our forces to believe in their own victory. That would be a great mistake. Even from the point of view of those who, like the hon. Gentleman, honourably and legitimately believe that we should withdraw from Afghanistan, it would be wrong to set a date; it would be the wrong way to go about a withdrawal, even if we believed in withdrawal.