DAT, it's really difficult for me to believe that I'm reading things like, "It is the nature of government that it must protect the whole over the individual parts, which essentially means the parts are expendable at need in order to preserve the whole," on a conservative political forum. But, there they are. The only proper function of government is to protect individual rights. Essentially, your view asserts that the government, or nation, or society, or "whole," has the right to survive while, and by, denying that very right to its individual citizens! If the individual does not have the right to life, then it is tautology that the government also does not have that right, unless we're talking about a statist dictatorship (and I am not). You even allude to this idea when you qualify government disposal of the lives of its citizens as good if done sparingly, and bad if done excessively. Who decides how many people's lives should be disposed of before it becomes excessive? I say one is enough, so we're at an impasse.
While I clearly will never match your experience and knowledge of all matters military, I contend that the numerical strength of numbers available to commanders is a limiting variable. In essence, war tactics should be designed with numbers in mind, not vice-versa. Take my opinion for whatever it's worth on this particular subject.