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Notes -
This analysis, of course, leaves out the context that Russia is, specifically in Eastern Europe but to a lesser extent in the Middle East, also an expansionist power seeking to unify various countries into a Russia-headed power block. Russian intervention in Syria wasn’t driven by concern about Syrian independence, it was driven by Syria accepting Russia as a hegemon. And Russian intervention in Ukraine has also, largely, been driven by trying to force Kiev to take orders from Moscow.
Russia and Syria have been allies for decades, the Russians have a naval base there and a lot of Syrian officers were trained in Moscow.
If the Philippines asked the US for help combatting terrorists, Islamists, rebels and various foreign-backed proxies, that would be perfectly reasonable and acceptable, given their longstanding ties and the US's pre-existing bases there.
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