Military campaign in Afghanistan mishandled: ex-MI6 chief

A former head of MI6 launched an attack on the British government last night for under-financing and mishandling the military campaign in Afghanistan. Sir Richard Dearlove, who was chief of the Secret Intelligence Service when British troops were sent into Afghanistan in 2001, said the Treasury had squeezed the defence budget over the following years.
The government had failed to properly explain to the public why Britain was at war, he argued, and had until recently given only "half-hearted" endorsement to its Afghanistan strategy.
A recent about-turn in policy, in which Gordon Brown had been much more emphatic about Britain's role in the war, was borne out of "political damage limitation", said Dearlove.
His comments came during a lecture at Gresham College in London in which he told an audience of academics that "the question of why we are at war with the Taliban is one of national security".
He said: "Our armed forces have been under-resourced. This is a basic fact from which there really is no escape. The Treasury has been squeezing the defence budget for approximately eight years.
"Until recently our political leadership has failed to explain satisfactorily why we are at war. Their advocacy of the policy has, I think, been half-hearted. Maybe now we see a change in their advocacy with a more confident position being taken, but the reason for change looks rather more like political damage limitation than vigorous belief in the policy."
Dearlove, who was head of MI6 from 1999 to2004, warned the government that it must deliver a strong message to its enemies to avoid the loss of more British troops' lives. "The Taliban, if they think we are wavering, will up the pressure and be encouraged to try to kill more of our soldiers," he said.