It's a rock and a hard place. The West can't help, won't help (for the foreseeable) and won't be invited back any time soon. But, rather like North Korea, it's going to be hell for the inhabitants, particularly those who happen to be female or don't want to toe the line.
All of our presidents since WW II espoused morality and Christianity. In fact, that was Tricky Dick Nixon's stock-in-trade. "You have a right to know if your president is a crook....and I'm not a crook." "The only thing that I ever took was a little dog named checkers (from Nixon's checkered past), for my daughter, and I'm not giving it back." (Nixon's Checkers speech).
But all of the wars (sans Middle East) were fought against China and Russia on some other's soil....typically Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia....etc. It was a war of super-powers, the US opposing Communism. Yet, as you said, the little guys were the ones hurt the most.
The US ended up losing virtually all of the wars. If anything, they delayed the Communist take-overs.
So, in the end, nothing was accomplished. The land was poisoned by agent orange, napalm, and other harmful chemicals. Land mines are still found there.
Farmers didn't want to hurt their dogs, so they sent their "worthless" daughters into mine fields to blow up (thus defusing the mines). Apparently human life is not worth much there.