Quote Originally Posted by jcustis View Post
Perhaps that's because it will always be easier to be the counterinsurgent than to actually resolve the insurgency across the spectrum.
Correct, but so what? It is not "your' job to solve the problem. "Your" is to break their armed force, using armed force.

"You" apply military force, which kills and destroys and so deters as a result of doing so, or intending so.
The military contribution to crushing a revolt is to kill and capture the "revolting." - that's it! Military force can only destroy or deter.

ALL ELSE is done by politics and diplomacy - with only the alternative to kill and capture, if the rebels act out again.

Killing and capturing rebels requires skill. It does not create more rebels. This is fallacy, though it can and might, it is not a given, and this is not a reason not to do it.