David Cameron has spoken forcefully on the role of the British forces during the Nato campaign in Libya, reserving particular scorn for those who suggested the missions would be hindered by defence cuts.
Speaking on Radio 4, the Prime Minister reproved the “armchair generals” who said the mission could not succeed with an aircraft carrier. “They were wrong,” he said repeatedly, striking a bullish tone.
"People who said this all going to be an enormous swamp of Islamists and extremists, they were wrong.”
"A lot of people who said Tripoli is completely different to Benghazi, the two don't get on, they were wrong.”
"People who said we were going to run out of munitions, they were wrong."
Cameron also dismissed comparisons with Iraq, saying: “One of the reasons why Tripoli is getting itself back together again in relatively good order, and of course there will be difficult days, is because it wasn’t a foreign force that knocked over Gaddafi’s regime.”
The Prime Minister confirmed that the RAF had flown around a fifth of the nearly 8,000 sorties against Gaddafi’s troops.
“That is punching, as it were, at our weight or even above our weight," he offered.