For the record, I've not only opposed our Mideast military adventures but also, in 2007, wrote an article warning about the folly of "nation-building." Yet I also know that if you are going to overthrow a tyrannical regime and remake the government, a prerequisite is winning the hearts and minds of the people. You must also note that you "never change things by fighting the existing reality," as famed architect Buckminster Fuller observed. "To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete."
Now, when the Nazis invaded the USSR during WWII, they initially encountered some people who hoped they'd free them from Stalin's brutal rule. Adolf Hitler was very blunt about his disinterest in winning hearts and minds, however, reportedly saying that he came not as a liberator, but a conqueror.