History shows backstop essential: Power not trust defines relationships

International intervention in a country’s affairs almost always ends in conquest or civil war. Cheering-crowd, flower-strewn-street outcomes are not guaranteed after a powerful nation extends a “helping hand” to a more vulnerable, troubled neighbour.

Intervention usually provokes blood-letting. Intrusion of the imperial, boots-on-the-ground kind often begins a process that ends disastrously when subjugated peoples become powerful enough to send conquerors home.