Isn't whack-a-mole good enough though? How many examples do we have through history of a large centralized organization being bled to death (or at least harassed to the point of giving up) by trying to wipe out a shifting coalition of resistance groups with no central authority? Rome vs Jewish rebels/Celtic tribes, Imperial China vs Mongolian warlords, first France, then the USA vs Vietnamese rebels (even China took a shot but I don't know if that counts since it was post-unification), the USSR vs Afghani warlords, the USA vs Afghani warlords, any future empire that tries to occupy Afghanistan... I would bet dollars to doughnuts that every centralized authority in the history of human civilization has lost a game of whack-a-mole at least once.
