Posted by Ken, I merely say we cannot as a third party intervenor do it very well and therefor those who insist on it being done are asking for something that cannot be produced other than briefly and in a finite area -- in other words, lacking being the government and opting for Algerian or Malayan solutions, you are not going to control the populace of a nation today. Yes, the Talibs are attempting to do that but they can and are doing things we cannot do -- and they are slowly but surely turning more people against the Taliban solution.
Agreed, and we sometimes fail to mention that during the troubles both Malaysia and Algeria were colonies, so that somewhat mitigated the third party effect. Population control measures can include a wide range of activities, and I agree that some of them have a short shelf life due to the impact on those affected, but others like protecting the population must endure for the length of the crisis. Population control is not a "strategy", but rather a means to set conditions that will allow the political strategy to be implemented. In my view, population control creates a window of opportunity to do the real work that needs to be done. It isn't the end game.

""with respect to earlier Spanish experience, "...didn't do them much good." " (emphasis added / kw). I believe Steve whom I referenced was pointing to the fact that the Spanish beat the US of A hands down in the genocide business and they got run completely off the continent so it didn't do them much good. So, yeah, Really...
I don't think we should confuse genocide with population control, and I'm sure you agree with that. We're not talking Hitler's Final Solution, but rather a means for separating the populace from the insurgents. Furthermore, the Spanish during that time frame were highly ineffective at most things. They were the equivalent of the Christian Taliban during that era, and thus were incapable of learning, assimilating knowledge from other cultures, or modernizing a foreign culture until they got their church under control. Spain may be a great nation now, but during its dark period they were far behind the rest of Europe. Therefore, I don't think it is accurate to equate their genocidicial approach as the reason they failed, that was simply a reflection of their overall backwardness during that time frame. In the U.S. we were heavy handed also, but we were effective, why? I think like most things in life the answer is never simple or black & white.