Didn't the US snarf Texas and New Mexico from Mexico back in the day? Everyone living there today is almost certainly better off.

The other obvious one I'm thinking of is the dude who unified China way back when, founded the first dynasty. 1 enormous China did very well for itself up until the 1800's or so, arguably better then the 4 or 5 squabbling wee kingdoms could have done.

When the Romans acquired Britain they beat down a bunch of unlettered savages living in mud huts. When the Roman empire collapsed Britain was left on its own, but now they had highways, new towns and infrastructure, new ideas about governance and institutions, a new religion, etc. etc. etc.

The missus just suggested the UN intervention in Cyprus has kept them from killing each other for 40 or 50 years now.

And yeah none of those is a good comparison to Iraq, and you could quibble about any or all of it, but that's history for ya.

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