Posted by Wilf,

So let us say the Klu Klux Klan or Neo-Nazis start an insurgency in the Southern US with the stated aim of re-introducing segregation. Should those stated aims be considered?

Let us say you have an ethnically mixed community, where the stronger element seek to ethnically cleanse the minority by violent means. Should their grievances be considered?

Bob! Why assume that the root cause of insurgency is always the fault of the government? There are many many grievances against governments that do not call for the legitimate use of violence.
Excellent points, which highlights that not all ideas are acceptable, if they are you don't have government, you have anarchy. I suspect less than 50% of the insurgencies are truly justified by a "bad" government.

But then we immediately took the position that we were invaders, but as liberators and not occupiers, and that govenrance was in the hands of those respective nations.
How many communist insurgent groups had "liberation" in their name? National Liberation Fronts were everywhere at the height of the Cold War. Some folks thought they were liberators, and others oppressors. The same rings true today for our activities in CENTCOM, and we're fighting those who see us as oppressors (hard for us to grasp based on our values), but as Wilf pointed out on an earlier post every side thinks they have the moral high ground.