Syria under Bashir Assad (closed end 2014)

[TheCurmudgeon]

I don't think successfully throwing out a colonial regime earns you legitimacy. In the initial phase of the fight it will earn you an allegiance in a "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" sort of way, but that is a far cry from legitimacy, as the events after the fall of the colonial regime often prove. Once the common enemy is gone then the true beliefs and their associated loyalties and legitimacy show themselves. By then, it is often too late.

An example from Syria

A recent confrontation between liberal protesters and Islamists in the northwestern Syrian city of Saraqeb, which was caught on video, set off a heated online debate. These weekly demonstrations have become a battle of symbols. Most demonstrators carry the green, red, black and white flag that was adopted by the secular opposition in the early days of the revolt.
But these days, a black banner also flutters at Friday demonstrations. It represents Salafists who embrace an ultraconservative brand of Islam that is new in Syria.The chants and counterchants are telling: The secular liberals shout for unity, freedom and a civil state. Democracy is what they say they want.The Islamists turn up the volume with calls for religious rule. An Islamic state is what they demand.

http://www.npr.org/2013/02/27/172989...re?ft=1&f=1001

The Islamists and the Secularist are fighting a common enemy, but they have two completely different concepts of what a legitimate government should consist of.

The basics of this cultural transition can be seen in almost all of the Arab Spring states as well as places like Thailand where royalists fight democracy advocates.(http://www.economist.com/node/15719095)

The history of each country adds unique flavors to these fights, but they are founded in human nature. They represent a transition from a belief in collective identity to individualistic identity. The use of force is only one tool, and one of limited "utility".