Jason,
Well, nobody should be surprised to discover that an occupation has to last for years or even decades. Look at Germany and Japan after WWII - and those occupiers weren't trying to impose an awkward political model and didn't have armed insurgents to deal with.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
