Nice idea, but it has no reflection of the real world we live in.. our bases extend the arm of our interest. We do not live in the 19th century where something that happens on the other side of the globe doesn't effect us.
...and I didn't answer your original question because it would only be a legitimate question if people have a time machine.. of course, if you have that time machine, you should also check to make sure that the alternative to risking blowback isn't greater than the blowback itself. Saddam was a blowback situation, but the alternative could have been Iran taking over Iraq, and continuing to go from there.. much greater of a problem than the blowback that resulted from Saddam.
No. Our bases all over the world are a testament to the fact that we seem to think we have some inherent right to control the world. I hate to be the one to break this to you but, we do NOT have that right or even some perceived moral authority to police the world. We have the right to blow the you-know-what out of anybody who threatens our nation or our people (uh oh!! - getting back into that declaration of war thing again...) but that's where our responsibility ends. Actions have consequences and part of the current mess in the mid-east goes all the way back into the 50s with our meddling there. The blowback just never ends and we've gotten to the point that we can't even patch things over fixing things without getting thousands of our military killed.