The British newspaper the Daily Telegraph reported Saturday that Britain’s top commander in Afghanistan resigned this week out of anger and frustration with his government’s unwillingness to provide British soldiers in the war-torn country with good equipment.

Major Sebastian Morley resigned suddenly this week citing “personal reasons.” The Telegraph, however, has found that his decision was not personal, but political.

He warned the British government constantly that the Snatch Land Rovers which British soldiers in Afghanistan used were too vulnerable to attacks. His warnings were ignored however, resulting in the deaths of four British soldiers, one of whom was the first female soldier to die in combat operations in Afghanistan.

Cpl Sarah Bryant and three male colleagues, the SAS soldiers, Cpl Sean Reeve, L/Cpl Richard Larkin and Paul Stout were killed when their lightly armoured Snatch Land Rover split apart after hitting a landmine in Helmand province in June,’ the Telegraph reported. Major Morley believes these deaths to be “needless.”

In his resignation letter the Major said that “chronic underinvestment” in equipment was the cause of the four soldiers’ death. Unwilling to be part of a system that lets its own soldiers be killed due to lack of funding, Major Morley resigned.

The report went on to say that the Major, who is a cousin of Princess Diana, called the lack of proper equipment “cavalier at best, criminal at worst.”

Like so many governments in western Europe, the British government has cut military funding for years, making a once strong army reasonably weak. Where European militaries were once the best equipped militaries in the world, soldiers now frequently complain that the lack of funding results in a lack of proper equipment which, in turn, costs lives.

The Major’s resignation should arose anger and passion in Britain about the government’s willingness to spend money on virtually every plan, except for the military. Funding a strong military is expensive, but it is worth it: the very first responsibility of any government is to protect its citizens and its interests. In order to do so successfully, it needs a strong and well functioning army.