I don't find it super convincing that our version is better because we merely aim to install a friendly government rather than annexing territory directly. We already did that. There isn't much more to annex.

>but not in a war of territorial expansion.

According to whom? According to Putin, they invaded ukraine to "denazify it". On the other hand "US invades country for oil" is a pretty popular narrative on the internet.

The argument is just a bit harder to make if you invade a country on your border, starting from your border, and expanding into the country.