History repeating itself?

One hundred years ago, our governments were sending troops off to war with the ideal that they should stop large nations (Germany and Austria - Hungary) bullying and taking over smaller nations (Serbia and Belgium). Australia and New Zealand, in the antipodes, did not hesitate to get involved in the conflict and promised troops and ships immediately.
Today 100 years later the big bully (Russia) is intimidating and threatening to take part/all of a smaller country (Ukraine). Not much has changed, even the relative locality of the conflict is in the same region.
This time Australia and other nations imposed sanctions on Russia. Businesses are moaning because they are losing profits, and people are asking "Should we get involved in a war so far away?"
Well - Should we help a country in trouble on the other side of the world?
Inadvertently we became involved, along with the Netherlands, when the Russian equipped separatists shot down the Malaysian airliner recently.

The Great War started close to this region 100 years ago. Ukraine (Blue and yellow).
The terrorist force invading Iraq (Red). The countries nearby must be nervous.

On another front - the scourge of a terrorist force have invaded Iraq from Syria. The Iraq government asked the USA for assistance to stop the advance. Australia was asked to assist and has done so. Australians are beginning to cry about supplying tucker to the Iraqie refugees besieged by cowardly murderers, and supplying Iraqie weapons to Kurds who are actually fighting the despicable cowards. The leader of our Green Party appeared on TV criticising the government for aiding Iraq. Can you believe that? They are the first ones to complain about human rights abuses, yet they can't put politics aside to support the government as it helps another. Incredible! To the credit of the opposition Party they have backed the government.
The people around the world criticised the Yanks for not helping soon enough. Now after becoming involved they are again being criticised for helping Iraq by targeting said terrorists with air strikes. It appears they are damned if they do, and damned if they don't.
It's a shame people can't support their government's decisions when they are helping a beleaguered neighbour, especially when the oppressors are so obviously doing the wrong thing.

Many people are concerned about refugees in Australia at the moment. If these bully forces continue to operate without opposition, there will be many more unfortunate people knocking on our doors. Refugees are not happy to leave their homelands unless they are forced out by threatened violence and hardships. We should do what we can to ensure the innocent victims can stay in their own homes safely, without fear.
I hope we never have another terrible conflict like we were involved in 100 years ago, and the best way to prevent it happening again is to nip it in the bud as soon as it develops. When something is so obviously wrong nations need to act quickly as a community to stop it becoming too big a problem.

To prevent what occurred 100 years ago happening again today, nations should quickly combine to let the bullies know that they can't just run amok doing whatever they want.

This is not a political statement, but rather a highlight that similar problems exist today just as they did 100 years ago.