Applying the lessons of late 19th/early 20th century asymmetrical warfare

[William F. Owen]

The whole COIN issue, to me, should be "are we going to actually preserve what we learned this time?" instead of "is Iraq like the Philippines/Vietnam/Malaya". And I don't have much faith in the U.S. military retaining anything of value, since it's failed to do so in every other conflict of this nature that it's been involved in.

You can, as you did with WW2 IF someone bothers to codify the lessons into an understanding and practice of Irregular Warfare. COIN is a form Warfare, beyond anything else. It IS about breaking will. It needs to be considered in those terms and the lessons will endure.