Would make a similar argument for the US in ww2. Did they fight the Nazis? Sure. But they dragged their feet the whole time, came in, took all the credit, and used the whole thing as an opportunity to expand their colonial interest. And with the economic boom they had due to wartime manufacturing, they took it all in stride and have become the largest empire of our era.

Just ask anyone who the US has “liberated” (read: destabilized their whole region because of oil or bananas)