During the 80s and 90s, Iraq's actions alone against Iraq and Kuwait cost the Middle East almost a million lives. Not even counting Iraq's domestic murders.

The first Gulf War, supported by a lot more people in hindsight than at the time, not only drove Saddam out of Kuwait, but exposed a previously unknown nuclear weapons program.

Had the U.S. adopted a "hands off" policy back then, not only would Kuwait belong to Iraq, but Saddam would have been a nuclear power years ago.

I've already mentioned Afghanistan and Lebanon. The former generated actual attacks on the United States, remember?

This was during the heyday of political "realism." How'd that work out?

I'm not sure exactly what we are using as a bar for the term "stability."