London, Dec 10(ANI): A former senior British Army commander has said that lessons learned during the Iraq invasion were not being applied in Afghanistan and “amateurs” were being placed in important roles, as a result of which lives are being lost.

Lieutenant General Freddie Viggers, Britain’s senior military representative in Iraq in 2003, said that the operation had suffered from a lack of direction from the beginning.

“We’ve got huge experience in this country. We’re not using it and we’re putting amateurs into really, really important positions and people are getting killed as a result of some of these decisions. It’s a huge responsibility and I just don’t sense we’re living up to it,” The Guardian quoted Viggers, as saying.

“The lack of a sense of direction from the outset put officials on a back foot. We have not really progressed at the strategic level. I am not talking about the soldiers and commanders and civilians.. who did a great job… it’s the intellectual horsepower that drives these things, which needs better co-ordination,” he added.

Viggers further said that senior officials, including ministers, needed more training to deal with the complexities involved in mounting an invasion of this kind.

Describing the situation in Iraq after the invasion, Viggers said: “It was rather like going to the theatre and seeing one sort of play and realising you were watching a tragedy as the curtains came back.”

“We suffered from a lack of any real understanding of the state of that country post-invasion,” he added. (ANI)