Two knights of the realm are at loggerheads as a very nasty stink over the war in Afghanistan wafts through Whitehall. It involves a senior former diplomat accusing the Army of taking men to fight and die in Helmand province simply in order to keep them busy and stop the government cutting numbers.

The diplomat is Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, a former ambassador to Israel, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan, who sounded off in a written memo to the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, according to today's Times.

Sir Sherard accused Army chiefs of having been "misleadingly optimistic" when advising government ministers about the conflict in Afghanistan. He said the war against the Taliban had given the Army a "raison d'être" it had been lacking, and the perfect chance to demand new resources.

Crucially, he stated that the head of the British Army at the time, Sir Richard Dannatt, had told him in 2007 that the government would insist on cuts after Iraq if troops were not used in Helmand. "It's 'use them, or lose them'," Sir Sherard quoted Dannatt as saying.

Two knights at war over 'disgraceful' Afghan story