MPs must learn from past mistakes on Iraq

IN a speech to the United Nations early yesterday, David Cameron said the UK is ready to ‘play its part’ in fighting Islamic State, which he called an ‘evil against which the whole world must unite’. The reason the Prime Minister spoke with such certainty is that, in advance of MPs being recalled today, he has struck a private deal with Ed Miliband which guarantees Parliamentary support for air strikes against IS positions in Iraq.

There will be no repeat of last year, when the votes of Labour MPs (and 30 wiseheaded Tory rebels) sent Mr Cameron to a crashing defeat over Syria.

However, the fact that today’s outcome has already been settled does not mean MPs should avoid asking the many troubling questions which remain about a new intervention in Iraq that, according to the Defence Secretary, could last two or three years. The most pressing is: beyond dropping bombs, what Britain’s strategy?

Military experts agree that air strikes alone will not destroy IS and boots will be needed on the ground.

But whose boots will they be, given the ragbag state of the Iraqi army?

After the last disastrous Iraq War, there can be no back-sliding on Mr Cameron’ s position that the lives of British troops will not be risked.

Also, can it really be wise for the party leaders to have already agreed to rule out attacking targets in Syria? What if an RAF plane is tracking a convoy of terrorists in Iraq that crosses the border?

Indeed, the strong suspicion is that, were it not for the hypocrisy of Mr Miliband, action in Syria would at least be on the table today. On the one hand, he supports the US and Arab bombing which has already taken place this week.

Yet he insists British planes must not engage without a UN resolution – which he knows full well is unobtainable, owing to the intransigence of Russia. The Labour l eader would surely command more respect if he were honest and admitted the reason he supports action in Iraq, but not Syria, is that this is the only way he can carry the support of his party.

In his UN speech, Mr Cameron said ‘past mistakes’ in Iraq should not become an ‘excuse for indifference or inaction’. Quite so. But when they address the recalled House of Commons today, our political leaders must show they have learnt from these terrible mistakes and they have a clear strategy for ending military involvement against IS – not just beginning it.