UK Parliament / Open data

Iraq Inquiry

Proceeding contribution from Rory Stewart (Conservative) in the House of Commons on Thursday, 29 January 2015. It occurred during Backbench debate on Iraq Inquiry.

We will get it back by being serious again. We will get it back by showing the British public that we have acknowledged the failure and we have

understood that failure—that we have learned the lessons and that we have reformed—and we will get it back by showing the superiority of Britain through a smaller conception of ourselves that is ultimately to do not with wearing pith helmets but with being an engaged global power. That does include, within the Ministry of Defence, having an ability to challenge ourselves, and having an ability, which we have lost in Iraq today, to provide an independent assessment of US missions. It includes, ultimately, our chiefs of staff recovering their confidence.

This is a good time to remember that, because I think where I and Opposition Members will agree is that on the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau the conclusion that Britain should draw from Iraq is not one of isolation. It should not be that we should be doing nothing; it should instead be that we need to recover our confidence as a country—recover the confidence that we are the fifth largest economy in the world, that we have unique skills and expertise, that we have an enormous amount to contribute to the world—and that what we should take from the Chilcot inquiry is not despair or paralysis, but a need to recover our compassion, our common sense and our confidence.

Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
591 cc1069-1070 
Session
2014-15
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
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