Not a killing, but capturing Noriega did in fact work out well. Panama of today is generally stable and rich (by Latam standards anyway).

Panama's main asset can't be removed from Panama.

Also Panama's population and land area are an order of magnitude smaller than these Middle East states, and they were already an American client state in the past.

This is prime cherry-picked propaganda bullshit. What about Augusto Pinochet, to name drop a counterexample? How did that work out for the Chilean people?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augusto_Pinochet#U.S._backing_...

Okay, then how about Japan and West Germany?

It's almost like whether "regime change" works or not depends on the specifics. It's not something that can be universally generalized.

It's almost like they are either stupid or the point was never about stability