Dai Havard

Labour Party | Merthyr Tydfil & Rhymney

Basra and Baghdad via Brize Norton

This was my third visit to Iraq, in the last two years, as a member of the House of Commons Defence Select Committee, or the HCDC as we are known to our armed services. Such visits are difficult to set up and can place extra stresses on those who have to keep us safe. There is however, no substitute for getting on the ground and checking the consistency of the stories we are told. Travelling on the same flights as our forces personnel we experienced first hand the frustrations of delays and the ‘joys’ of hanging around in air-conditioned tents. Our Sunday - Friday trip saw us eventually arrive at our communal billets in Basra at 03:30 a.m. Monday. A bare mattress and our own sleeping bags was the order of the day but at least it was air-conditioned and not a tent. The ‘30 seconds on - 30 seconds off’ shower policy was familiar to me from previous visits, as was the ‘two can rule’ for beer.

GOC Major Gen John Cooper and his staff briefed us on the general situation in the UK area (known as MND-SE) and again I was struck by the frustration that their work was still not being supported as well as it might be by infrastructure development. The overall picture is, understandably, complex with increased insecurity for our troops and increased incidents of violence but at the same time there is significant progress towards passing over to Iraqi control in at least two Provinces in the Region.

A main plank in that process is the newly trained Iraqi Army. The new 10Th Division Iraqi Army - trained by the UK - is said to be ready to take on many of the security tasks now done by the UK and our allies. With a State of Emergency declared in Basra where there is a power struggle tacking place, there is clearly a problem with the Governor and many elements in the Iraqi Police Service. This conflict between Shia groups and criminal gangs will be a test for the new - Shia - Prime Minister. He has to make his writ run there and the State of Emergency he has declared is clearly a tool to do just that, as well as being the first test of the new Iraqi Army to set a practice to be adopted elsewhere. We discussed this later with the Prime Minister in Baghdad.

UK plans for consolidating logistical support into two locations and future Basing Strategy for a drawback of forces is well underway. Our military know that to avoid being bogged down in Iraq we need to pass control on as soon as possible and the agreed ‘conditions based’ method for doing that is their main driver.

Major General Latif the commander of 10 Div of the National Iraqi Army warmly welcomed us and we had a very frank and open discussion with him. Clearly a capable soldier and a sensitive and thinking man; what he now calls for are the armoured trucks and vehicles to manoeuvre and do his job. The corruption in the Interior and Defence Ministries and the lack of direction to provide equipment may ease now with the appointment of Ministers in each ministry. These posts were announced as we met the second of the Vice Presidents that make up the collective Presidency in Iraq. I took away General Latif’s frustrations but also a sense of courage to succeed in making the region around Basra a secure place for the economic engine of oil production and trade through the ports around Um Quasar. It was this recognition of the different situation in MND-SE from that in the centre of Iraq; the economic importance of the region to the whole success of Iraq; along with the need to let it develop and give it a greater priority, that I took to Baghdad.      

The ride to Baghdad was ‘interesting’ in parts. The ‘rock and roll’ spiral of the C130 - Hercules was new to some but the Puma Helicopter ride into the town from the airport was certainly a bit different. Three very sharp avoidance manoeuvres in quick succession, with counter-measure flares raining down on the roofs of local houses as we skimmed their roofs. It quickly became obvious that this was a different place to Basra and the South. The US ‘force posture’ and large armoured vehicle convoys with - ‘stay 100m off or we will shoot’ - signs on their rear vehicles, gives a very different atmosphere.

I had the privilege of meeting with the Deputy Prime Minister; Speaker of Parliament, both Vice Presidents and with the Prime Minister himself. It was clear that the preoccupation in Baghdad is not with MND-SE and the UK Forces behaviours and actions but with the US and its posture and actions and the turmoil in the Sunni areas. We were told of secret contacts to bring ‘National Resistance/Insurgents into the political process and away from Militias and the announcement of the death of Al-Zarqawi on the same day as the final appointments to the Government raised a difference between Resistance/Insurgents and Al-Qaeda. I am not sure that President Bush’s ‘we have delivered justice to him’ speech was the best approach but what was clear is that there is a feeling of a tipping point in the air. We had very frank discussion with all the politicians we met and all talked of a united Iraq.

The position of Basra and the UK area is crucial in that. The UK Force area, along with sections of the Kurdish North, offer the first best chance to allow the new Iraqi institutions to take initial control and for our troops to withdraw to a supporting role. The call for infrastructure development and employment to consolidate their hard fought efforts on security still needs to be heeded. The military can not substitute for governments and I will be pressing again that other agencies take the hard fought opportunities our military are offering them and the ordinary people of Iraq. There will be conflicts for the Iraqis as their new Government Ministries; Army and security forces take more control and all parts of the Coalition and the Iraqi’s must understand that we and they will have to resist the temptation for UK and Coalition forces to always intervene - security ‘over-watch’ must mean what it says.

Nothing is easy in Iraq and any tasks are made more difficult in 50o C heat. A short - one hour - road move in a Warrior armoured car in flack jackets and helmets – 60o C in there - gave just a flavour of that. There are too many people to list who were of assistance to me and need to not just be thanked but paid tribute to. One person I made sure to try and see as I visited Shaibah Logistics Base and called in on the Field Hospital was a constituent - Dr, or rather Colonel, Mike Maguire, drafted for his second TA tour. Very different to his medical work in Merthyr! I came away with a list of issues for the Forces, MoD and Government Ministers but also with a renewed commitment to our people and their families and the need to help see their plans for drawback understood, supported and progressed.