Commentary: Britain’s contribution must be more than just air strikes

With commendable understatement, a committee of MPs has called Britain’s contribution to the fight against Islamic State extremists “strikingly modest”.

Today’s report from the Commons Defence Committee points out that the British effort in fighting IS in Iraq comes well behind those of Italy, Spain, Australia and of course the United States.

Only 48 British soldiers have been involved in training Kurdish forces in the north of Iraq. Elsewhere only three British officers are participating in helping to retrain the Iraqi army. British planes account for only six per cent of the allied air campaign.

The committee headed by MP Rory Stewart, a veteran of campaigns in both Iraq and Afghanistan, suggests Britain should step up to the mark with expert advice and training — if the Government believes IS is the global menace it claims to be.

Stewart’s committee points up a much bigger problem in government attitudes to defence, security and foreign policy. A senior officer summed it up neatly to me recently: “Most of what they want is just gestures, which they pass off as policy.” Cuts in defence spending were inevitable when the coalition came to power in 2010, given the state of public finances. But the way the cuts have been carried out has left defence and the forces in a parlous state in terms of morale and capability.

The coalition has blithely hacked away, with little consideration of what the forces — hard power security, in today’s jargon — are for and what they are likely to be called to do in future.

Stewart has suggested that the generals should send in more special forces to challenge Islamic State — teams to train Iraqi Arab and Kurdish forces in handling IED remote-control bombs.

But second-guessing the generals does not fit the bill. There are not enough spare special forces and plenty of IED expertise is available elsewhere.

More has to be done beyond the allied air strikes against IS. Local forces must be trained, with active participation by western trainers if necessary, to mount “strategic” commando-style raids to take out concentrations of IS fighters on the ground.

Beyond that, we need a long-term plan for the stability and security of the whole region of Syria, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon.