Damn, outed on your first post.
Ping (if you guys still do that) on over to the library and pick up some books on the efforts of the USMC and Army in the late 1800s/early 1900s to see how conventional forces can be utilized with some effect in counterinsurgencies (i.e. Cuba, Central America, the Philippines, China). One book to start off is "The Savage Wars of Peace" by Max Boot. You can also do some reading on the British work in Malaya. I don't know if the library has it, but "Conflict of Myths" by Larry Cable analyzes the strategies used by government forces in several counterinsurgencies (Greece, Malaya, early VN) and their results.
Those references are a start. There are many folks here that have forgotten more about this subject than I'll ever learn, so once you have done more preliminary study and have more precisely focused your topic, come on back and ask more questions.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot...start The Days.