In general hicks that are hard to get to with strong beliefs are really hard to stop. This is true in Rojava and Chiapas where I see them as models of a better world and in Afghanistan where I see them as harbingers of a worse one.

Revolution relies on stopping you either being impossible or not worthwhile. Extremists in difficult terrain that they call home are going to take a long fight where they win most of the battles to actually stop. Meanwhile a slight shift towards something most people want and most of the remainder can live with works because the cost of concession for the soldiers and lower officials is small and the cost of fighting is pissing everyone else off and damaging your population and international reputation while increasing the risk to all government involved people if the revolution succeeds.

The worst case scenario for the average soldier and revolutionary is a civil war type situation where neither side can concede, compromise, or decisively control the majority or where they miscalculate those factors