This all stems from insurgency style warfare.The insurgent force tries its best to blend in with the populace making things very difficult for the opposing force that must use counterinsurgency warfare to mitigate things.
The problem is that unless a sizable portion of the population can be convinced that the counterinsurgency force(CIF) side has their best interests in mind the CIF will have great difficulty in defeating the insurgency and each and every mistake they make that causes lives of the populace harms the end goal.
Add to this the fact that most insurgencies which to cause as much frustration on the CIF as possible they usually fight in such a way as to frustrate the CIF which in turn causes the CIF to mistrust all of the populace thereby alienating them and making them more likely to support or even fight with the insurgency.Even worse is when the CIF commits an atrocity against the populace of course this is exactly what the insurgency wants.
In my opinion a nation should avoid counterinsurgency warfare if at all possible a positive out come is very difficult achieve and may take decades the odds that all or part of a nation will tire or expend itself are too high.
On the other hand a nation wanting to weaken or even take out another should condenser supporting an insurgency against its foe.
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