Quote Originally Posted by Ian K View Post

And is it realistic to suppose that there may be situations where the population will, presumably for ideological reasons, resist these efforts for long periods of time (years/decades) no matter how well the troops "get it"?
Looks like you just uncovered one of the many reasons they say it take 10-30 years

In the long run no matter what the Counter Insurgent does or doesn't do it's the population who'll decide what right looks like for them. Sometimes you might be lucky enough to end up with it looking something like what you'd hope for, more often than not unfortunately not.

Thus the statement that Hope is not a plan, it may be an influencer in how you approach it but in the end,(as Ken is so good at saying)--- METT-TC