[Apes]

It's because we're not actually fighting the Taliban, or ISIS, or whatever other insurgent flavor is getting attention at the moment. Many, if not most, successful insurgencies through history have had extensive backing and support of 3rd party nation states.

It's a common political move for a country to back the insurgencies against their enemies. As examples, the United States had the backing of France during the revolutionary war, North Vietnam had the backing of both China, and Russia, and Afghanistan had the backing of the United States during the Soviet invasion. None of these insurgencies would have been successful without the intervention and assistence of the major nation states.

So in truth, these never ending "insurgent resistance" situations we've found ourselves in are actually proxy wars against at least Iran, Pakistan, and Russia. Countries like China and Saudi Arabia are also certainly involved to some extent. These countries provide funding, equipment, training, and refuge to these groups, providing the insurgents with the capability to continue operating indefinitely.

As long as these countries continuing to support the insurgencies we're fighting, there is no viable way to actually end the insurgencies.

[riskneutral]

I think “operating indefinitely” is a bit of an exaggeration. Proxy wars do eventually come to a conclusion, and the results can be dramatic. To your point, France backed the American War of Independence against the British, and once the American side won, the course of history was completely changed by the founding the United States. And the American insurgency in Afghanistan partly led to the collapse of the USSR, which also dramatically changed the global strategic chessboard. The level of proxy warfare in the world has clearly increased in the past few years, and the question is how will it end.

[not_real_acct]

I imagine this had a huge impact on the drug trade too:

In the 1980s, the US and the USSR were fighting numerous proxy wars in countries like Nicaragua.

When the USSR collapsed, you had thousands of trained soldiers who stopped receiving a paycheck. If you've spent the last ten years fighting in a war, you're not just going to put down the AK47 and go work on a farm.

[baud147258]

Regarding Irak, the US shut down the army, putting thousands of trained soldiers out of a job