The post you are reporting:
[I have been, successfully, avoiding this topic until this morning.]
Sadly, I cannot accept that these circumstances have come about because of the rise to prominence of the 'bean-counter' mentality. There is more to this than cost.
Mission Fatigue, is for me the most likely driving force here.
It was pointed-out to me some while back (and the numbers involved will give you some idea of just how long ago this was) that 'we' take a child from the last year(s) of primary school, up through secondary school, onto tertiary-training or the dole, off into the army, off into theatre and back in a body-bag/stretcher in the time it has taken to 'secure peace' in Afghanistan, and the job goes on.
We have transformed the situation of having a well trained and efficient Standing Army to one where we have Constant Combat.
Instead of rotating forces between danger-to-garden and back, we now use-up and exhaust the personnel and discard them. This all has the potential of creating perpetual-motion, a tread-mill that is and shall continue to be, something very difficult to dismount from.