Learning the lessons of history

A comment I am noticing a fair bit in relation to the invasion of Ukraine is along the lines of "learning the lessons of history" (which brings to mind the joke about those who study history are doomed to watch the mistakes of those who don't). Notably, one I read said we should be looking back to the West's inaction (under Clinton, who - IMO - was notoriously inept at international human rights and thus this sort of action) on the wars against Chechnya.

This point is also emphasised in Catherine  Belton's "Putin's  People",which I posted briefly about here.

Fair enough - I agree with that, but the lessons have to go back far enough, so let's also remember the lessons of the USA's disastrous regime change in Iran in the 50s, when they kicked out a democratically elected government, the devastation of France's attempts to keep hold of Algeria (recently marked by events commemorating an anniversary), and the utter devastation of Nigeria preventing Biafra separate in the 1970s - which is a little akin to what happened in Chechnya, perhaps.

Then, perhaps let's reflect on things like the ongoing and under-acknowledged war  and  famine in Yemen, the insurgency in the southern Philippines, the atrocities being committed in Burma, Tibet, and Xinjiang, the dictators in Uganda, the military junta in Sudan and the destruction of democracy in Nicaragua (currently being feted by the USA as a make-up source of oil), and REALISE that these lessons still apply elsewhere, and there are ONGOING OPPORTUNITIES NOW to prevent future disasters like that being seen in Ukraine - where racism has been part of the abuses. 

And after that, let's have a chat about the sanctity of national sovereignty vs. the sanctity of self-determination - too much of what is going wrong in the world today hangs off that.