I think I have to agree witjh Bill Moore's post, especially in regards to the issue of complexity. The bottom line, as Bill Moore pointed out, is that this isn't easy and it isn't a one size fits all solution. An appeal to CvC as "THE" answer is just another effort to find that silver bullet that does not exist.

JMM cited a couple of 20th Century examples of "mixed bag" efforts. Despite being enjoined by Zenpundit to eschew the historical method, I'd like to suggest that we look at the American Revolution for another example of those complexities. That struggle was actually several struggles between a number of entities with a number of different goals. In some cases the colonists were the good guys; in others, the bad guys. The French and Spanish, as well Native Americans from nations that included the Oneida and Tuscaroroa tribes of the Iroquois Federation and the Catawbas of the Carolinas, may be viewed as an intervening force supporting the insurrection. Forces deployed by George III from various German principalities like Hesse-Kassel, Anhalt-Zerbst, Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel, and Ansbach-Bayreuth, not to mention members of the remaining tribes of the Iroquois Confederacy and the Cherokees in the South, may be considered COIN assistance to the forces of England trying to quell the insurrection. The loyalties of colonists themselves were fairly divided. Check out the events in what is now Westchester County, NY or the backwoods of South Carolina for some horrendous tales of inhumane treatment by civilian adherents to both sides of the conflict.