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I believe the consequences of invading another country are always gruesome. Nevertheless it is the case that leaders make calls to war. I doubt you will find many who believe that the brutality of the fighting is to be blamed on the leaders who assumed the necessity of the war. Unless you're making an HBD case relating to Slavs and Anglos. The British have their own history of failed military ventures, after all. I'm not sure people would as earnestly buy the English bulldog bravado about their 'just' wars if they had GoPro footage from them.
I'd contrast Russia's failed military ventures with Britain's failed domestic policy. Importing millions of fighting age men willingly and then setting up a system of governance and justice that marginalizes the natives to a point where thousands of little girls can be raped by foreigners with little to no interference is, as far as statecraft goes, kind of worse. Leaving aside the brazen effort of population replacement. Which is maintained by the state through a network of media suffocation and political suppression.
Russian grannies might watch state TV, but nigh every man, woman and child in the west watches Netflix. I don't particularly care for the weight people put on the distinction between state propaganda and propaganda that happens to not be directly from the state. There's obviously a program being run by every government to get a message out there or to follow a message. And to drown out other messages. To that extent I don't believe the average granny in the UK is much better informed than the average granny in Russia in any way that matters. British people in general seem just as stupid as others when it comes to discerning reality from fictional propaganda.
The UK invaded Iceland in 1940 and the Faroe Islands (then under the Danish crown), neither with loss of life. Iceland was never returned to Denmark. But I'd consider that more the exception that proves the rule.
There's also the US invasion of Grenada, which was not bloodless, but nor was it gruesome. Same with Panama.
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