It's abundantly clear that the Labour government does not place the armed forces, or the actions in which they engage them, on a high level of priority. One only has to look at how the have messed about with the position of Minister of Defence to see that - the absolute low point being making it a job share with the Scottish job. Brown pays lip service to the military, but he doesn't really care about the forces.
Therefore, whatever their grand talk about a new defence paradigm, they have singularly failed to back it up with real committment. The "drip drip " of soldiers into Afghanistan reinforces this piecemeal approach to strategy, despite numerous senior officers continually asking for more.
More often than not, military actions are won by overwhelming force. This government's approach to military strategy is driven by short-sighted budgetary and political considerations. Ergo, it's currently doomed to fail, and the failure will be entirely political.