Fortunately it is. Although they're really hammering this angle. However, Sir Richard's most recent remarks claim otherwise.
From the BBC
He later told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme that when he talked about pulling out of Iraq "sometime soon", he meant "then when the mission is substantially done we should leave".
"We don't want to be there another two, three, four, five years. We've got to think about this in terms of a reasonable length of time."
He said the view that the presence of UK troops "exacerbates" the problems was "not right across the country", but in parts of it.
And he later said in a statement: "I'm a soldier - we don't do surrender, we don't pull down white flags. We will remain in southern Iraq until the job is done - we're going to see this through."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6046822.stm
sometimes I wonder why these people speak to the media given that anything they say can and will be used against them