DC: Depends on what is in the national interest

Stuart asked, would we participate. If I was your Prime Minister, I would want to think very carefully what's in the national interest, what will make us safer here in the United Kingdom? I think we need to end the division between foreign policy and security policy and Home Office policy. Bring it all together and think about our national security. I would also say this. If you look at future operations like that, we have to learn from the mistakes of the past. We have to make sure we plan properly, we've got to make sure 9 we never send our troops into battle again without the proper equipment, without the proper helicopters. We have to think through not just what we are doing militarily, but actually is the aid there, are we helping these people? Do we have a political strategy for how we are going to get out of that country once we have tried to make it safe with our allies? In the case of Afghanistan, far too many of those questions weren't answered. And even now, while I support what we are doing and I want it to work, I still worry we are not doing enough to get the political situation right in Afghanistan.

I completely agree with Gordon Brown about the bravery of our forces. I've been to Afghanistan four times. Every time you're just blown away by the professionalism of these people. I actually, to prepare for this debate, I went for a run this morning with someone who just got back from Afghanistan this morning, I couldn't keep up, he was someone who'd served for six months and had done an incredible job there. Just going back to the point about how we get these things right, one of the things that strikes you when you go to Afghanistan is that actually we are not getting things right politically. The south of the country is where Taliban grew, where they came from, that is the Pashtun part of the country. Yet when you see the Afghan National Army, it is dominated by people from the other parts of the country. There is a really big political issue there. We have to make sure the whole country in Afghanistan feels it's part of the Afghan Government. That's absolutely key for making sure we can bring our soldiers back home. Not just training the Afghan army and police, as Gordon said, vital though that is, we need a political settlement as well to help make sure we can come home.

RELATED ARTICLESExplain
Visualizing the Prime Ministerial Debates
International questions
B. Should UK act in multinational operations against terrorists abroad
DC: Depends on what is in the national interest
Learn from the mistakes of the past
Shouldn't trade off future nuclear security for proper equipment now
David Cameron (International)
GB: Already doing this with al Qaeda in Somalia and Yemen
NC: Yes, when it is to keep Britain safe - but with the right strategy
Graph of this discussion
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