Quote Originally Posted by Bob's World View Post
The key point in why I don't think it is helpful to consider COIN war (even though I believe that insurgency typically is war for the insurgent); is because COIN is waged against one's own populace. The techniques, tactics and procedures, the very mindset of war are completely counter productive to a government resolving a dispute with an armed rebellion that enjoys a broad base of popular support.
I don't that one flies...an insurgency may generally be conducted against one's one populace but COUNTER-insurgency is often (more often than not?) conducted by a foreign force agaisnt a population e.g. France in Algerie and Indo-Chine, England in the US, the US et al in Vietnam, NATO in AFG, the Commonwealth in Malaya...

Also a broad popular base of support may not necessarily exist in an insurgency, often the insurgent will NOT be representative of the broader population e.g. the CT in Malaya, Taliban in AFG, AQ in Iraq, Republicans in Northern Ireland, militia in Timor Leste, Mau Mau in Kenya, Red Brigade?Baaader-Meinhof etc in Europe (I don't think they actually count but they probably thought they did)...