Quote Originally Posted by tequila View Post
Old, old joke. I got told that one by my company gunny in boot camp. He was so salty he actually liked the MRE omelette.

"MRE = Meals Refusing to Exit."

I can't really imagine al-Qaeda holding a victory parade, but Hizbullah? Certainly. They have been the de facto government of the Lebanese south for years and already constitute something of a Shia state-within-a-state. If they were to go head up vs the Lebanese army (or rather what would remain of the Lebanese army without its Shia enlisted), I wouldn't bet against them.
But the state-within-a-state idea is the kicker. That wasn't normally what Cold War era insurgencies wanted. We kind of conceptualize the outcome as either the regime in control of the whole country or the insurgents. Should we adjust our conceptualization (and strategy and doctrine) for insurgents who only want control of part of the country? There are a lot of them, from FARC to, potentially, AQI