Counting Cost

An Australian who joined the British Army to do 'real soldiering' has been killed in Afghanistan (here). It serves as a reminder that the cost of 'real soldiering' can and will be at the cost of lives. It is a bit disturbing, I find, that both his parents and the British Army trot out the line that he died doing what he loved. That is as may be, but at what point do we say enough is enough and the cost is too high.
An interesting story too about the costs of flights to Antartica (here) half of which had to be cancelled and/or rescheduled because of the need to fly an injured person back to Tasmania taking up resources.I suppose this can't be held, though there is a tradition, surely, that saving human life takes priority over anything.
Though I must admit to having a certain ambivalence about the rescue of lone sailors (here). I mean who pays for this indulgence of adventurers. It's all well and good if nothing happens, but costs a bomb when the balloon goes up.