Well, sometimes the inhabitants are not too happy about that & fighting them is eventually just too much trouble. (Philippines.)
Grenada and Panama? Ok, cool.
Iraq. Well maybe if we truly totally run it. (Oil. Drilling here is less trouble, though.)
Afghanistan? Yuck!!!
“Afghanistan? Yuck!!!”
lol... I’m just saying - we can sell it too, but if we send our kids and resources to fight for it - we get to do with it what we please.
If they don’t want our help and pose no national security threat we leave them alone.
There has to be an advantage to being the big dog.