Quote Originally Posted by Bob's World View Post
Remember, "Clear-Hold-Build" is the same strategy we applied to deal with the Indian "problem" and estabish good governance over the Western US. Not too many people look back at that as a shining example of how to treat a populace (effective, yes, but at what cost; and is it effective if you don't combine it with an effective genocide program?).

Personal opinion; this is a cliche' sound-byte that we need to set back on the shelf of history and look for models that work without taking out the local populace and replacing them with your own in order to be effective.
Actually the Spanish combined it with a very effective genocide program and it didn't do them much good....

If we're going to go picking into history for examples, we also need to be careful to retain the context and framework of each situation and solution. The Frontier is perhaps best understood as a poorly-planned occupation and conquest with elements of what we'd now consider counter-insurgency thrown in for good measure. It was an operation that for the most part only got half-hearted support and minimal funding from the central government, and was often agitated by what might now be considered "non-state actors" on all sides of the issue. It also contains any number of examples about how operational templating and "one size fits all" planning can lead to less than optimal outcomes.

I think it's more important to have a good understanding of the issues (including restrictions) that face your particular situation and have the knowledge and tools to be able to create a plan based on the specifics of your situation. Properly informed adaptive leadership and planning will be more successful than all the perfect models in the world poorly applied.