[Condor51]

"Since the end of World War II, the only major foreign power that succeeded in putting down an insurgency was the British putting down the Malay insurgency, but the British stayed 15 years." "So you can say for historical reasons, the odds are not great of our prevailing there," he argued.

Hey Willard, what was your Major in College? Surely it wasn't HISTORY.

• Rebellion in US Occupied Korea 1946:
  Once the United States occupation force chose to bolster the status quo and resist radical reform of colonial legacies, it immediately ran into monumental opposition to its policies from the majority of South Koreans. The United States Army Military Government in Korea (1945-48) spent most of its first year suppressing the many people's committees that had emerged in the provinces. This action provoked a massive rebellion in the fall of 1946... the rebellion was suppressed

• Revolt in Madagascar 1947-1948
  ...In less than a year, Malagasy nationalist tribesmen rose in revolt in the island's eastern part; after receiving reinforcements, resident French soldiers were able to quell it...

• Korean Guerrilla War 1948-1949
  ..radical activists developed a significant guerrilla movement in 1948 and 1949

• Nationalist Uprising in Puerto Rico 1950
  Pedro Albizu Campos led a failed uprising in Puerto Rico, which was quickly defeated by the island's National Guard (October 30)

• East German Uprising 1953

• USSR Hungary Revolt 1956

• The Prague Spring in Czechoslovakia 1968

And Billy-Jeff last but not least was Israel's insurgency against the Brits.

[wingnutx]

Our troops will never survive the brutal Iraqi winter!

Oops, that's Afghanistan, where no invader has ever managed to win.

We did? Damn.

[Airborne1986]

Thank you for your examples. But, isn't what we are doing also analgous to supporting a host nation's efforts to defeat an insurgency? We have had a lot of success at that: the Philippines, El Salvador, Columbia, Boliva and currently in Afghanistan - just off the top of my head.

The former rapist-in-chief limits his self-serving theory to after World War II, when colonialism was out of fashion and a major power was more likely to divest itself of colonies than it was to fight to retain them.