Except that the intent was never anything of the kind. In fact, it was more or less to have SA band together to defend against a direct threat to the faith—which is exactly what you have given them.
Yeah, defensive alliances are never an indication of aggressive intent. Take the Delian League, for example. Obviously Athens only wanted to defend itself from the Persian Empire, not form its own empire around Greece. Or consider NATO: isn't it obvious that all it wanted to do was defend the west from the evil commies? Surely NATO never had, you know, "contingency" plans for a strike into Soviet territory?
Defensive alliances are aggressive institutions for clever diplomats.
