Soft Power And Hard Power

EDM number 645 in 2006-07, proposed by Paul Flynn on 16/01/2007.

That this House notes the letter of 23rd March 2003 to the Prime Minister from the hon. Member for Newport West which opined that the UK's involvement in President Bush's war in Iraq will increase the likelihood of terrorist attacks, attacking a Muslim state without achieving a fair settlement of the Palestine-Israeli situation was an affront to all Muslims, the great lesson from Northern Ireland is that the best way to defeat terrorism is to win over the hearts and minds of terrorists, their supporters and their potential supporters, pre-emptive attack of the kind perpetrated on Iraq will only deepen the sense among Muslims that the Western/Christian/Jewish world is out to oppress them, and `this will provide a propaganda victory to Osama Bin Laden and can only increase his support and the likelihood of more acts of terrorism'; recognises compelling evidence that the UK's involvement in the Iraq War led directly to the 7/7 attack by British-born terrorists; and believes that the reckless deployment of hard power is often counter-productive and undermines the soft power strategy of winning hearts and minds.

This motion has been signed by a total of 12 MPs.