One of the reasons I never became particularly good at Civ was that I tended to do that kind of thing out of spite rather than through strategic thinking. But still satisfying nonetheless. If I didn't have the world under my thumb I'd be charged with war crimes. ALL the war crimes.
It's something I occasionally forget to do. I seem to have broken the AI though, I have two giant armies of Chinese bottled up in two cities, which means I have to keep three of mine there to watch them. But they're not moving against me, weird. So much easier with gunships, although easily countered directly.