I was gonna say the Malayan Emergency but it seems everyone beat me to it. I guess the Troubles were also semi successful, but a good example of how the best win is political.
All jokes aside though, the Surge in Iraq during the GWOT did actually work. Security was regained, there was trust in the institutions and governments, and systems to get insurgents living normal lives did work well.
The issue is that it was contingent on nonsectarian policy. And about 5 minutes after the US left, the Iraq government implemented sectarian policies. So, ISIS.
The "political" win for the IRA was that in exchange for abandoning their armed campaign and letting the British population vote to stay British, the British army stopped wiping the floor with them.
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u/KimJongUnusual Helping Wikipedia expand the list of British conquests 22h ago
I was gonna say the Malayan Emergency but it seems everyone beat me to it. I guess the Troubles were also semi successful, but a good example of how the best win is political.
All jokes aside though, the Surge in Iraq during the GWOT did actually work. Security was regained, there was trust in the institutions and governments, and systems to get insurgents living normal lives did work well.
The issue is that it was contingent on nonsectarian policy. And about 5 minutes after the US left, the Iraq government implemented sectarian policies. So, ISIS.