Point taken, but I'm still sensitive to the extent that the mentality of colonialism pervades our thinking about insurgency (again, because we learned from colonialists.) Viz the idea that the problem is elites which don't govern as per Western ideals. Maybe I'm jaded, but given that the systems that elites in conflict prone states have constructed benefits them personally, our counterinsurgency strategy calls on them to act against their own personal and family interests. I think that's a dead end.
I do believe that it would work to totally re-engineer such societies, but I don't think that's going to happen by prodding elites with a vested interest in the existing system. It might work through a lengthy occupation. But that's not going to happen.
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