Re: "Is the West OK when the gun points the other way?"
Often enough. A few 20th-century examples
- Spanish Civil War
- Greek resistance in WW2
- Yugoslav resistance in WW2
- Irish Nationalists
- Ulster Unionists
- Bolsheviks and Mensheviks
- White Army and Czechoslovak Legion
- Italian organised crime in WW2 (Mafiosi fighting both fascists and communists went down great with the occupying Americans)
and I'm sure there are many others that I should remember.