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THE PARLIAMENTARY REVIEW Highlighting best practice 52 | REVIEW OF PARLIAMENT government. 'This is about psychopathic terrorists who are trying to kill us … There is not a 'walk on by' option.' Challenged by the Labour MP Dennis Skinner, who asked how long this war would go on, Mr Cameron said the commitment would last for years. But British troops would not be involved in combat operations; the 'boots on the ground' would come from Iraqi and Kurdish forces. And he stressed that the motion only authorised action in Iraq, not in neighbouring Syria. A key anxiety was that involvement in Iraq would inevitably draw UK forces into the long-running conflict in Syria – and some MPs supported that. But there was great interest when the Prime Minister was questioned by backbencher David Burrowes about the responsibility in international law to prevent genocide. Mr Cameron said he would be prepared to deploy British forces, without a vote in Parliament, 'If there was a moment when it looked as if there could be an urgent humanitarian need for intervention, I would be prepared to order that intervention and then come to the House to explain why.' The Labour leader Ed Miliband understood qualms about military action, but he supported the government proposal because it would be limited to airstrikes in Iraq, and not beyond. And, when the Conservative Robert Halfon intervened to ask if he would support future action against ISIL in Syria, Mr Miliband said that would have to be considered at the time. His concerns centred around the need for a clear strategy for such an intervention and for a clear position in international law: 'It would be better – I put it no higher than that – to seek a UN Security Council resolution', he said. His caution was praised by Peter Hain, a member of Tony Blair's cabinet at the start of the 2003 Iraq war. Mr Hain had voted for that invasion but said it had turned out that Britain had gone to war 'on a lie', and the consequences had left him 'deeply allergic to anything similar'. A number of MPs opposed the intervention. Among them the Respect MP George Galloway, who said the mission creep had not even waited until the end of the debate, and that a consensus was emerging that Britain would soon be bombing in Syria. He thought bombing would not work: 'The people outside can see it, but the fools in here, who draw a big salary and big expenses cannot or will not see it.' Labour leader Ed Miliband supported military action because it would be limited to airstrikes in Iraq RAF Hercules C-130J aircraft in Iraq