Hospitality, as with all the mountain tribes, was - and is still - a most sacred duty; and the man who would slay a chance-met traveller without pity or remorse for the sake of trifling gain, would lay down his life for the very same individual were he to cross his threshold as even an unbidden guest.
Mounting tensions in Eastern Europe send shivers down the spine. Barely a quarter of a century after the end of the Cold War we seem to be sliding inexorably towards another.
diplomacy shivers tension force military peace-on-earth fears learning-from-mistakes military-quote russia political-commentary super-powers army error errors lessons-learned repeat-mistakes wars ukraine defence conflict-resolution peace-quote peacemaker warfare forces international-relations conflicts lessons-learned-in-life poor-leadership nuclear-threat nuclear-weapons armies aggression lessons-of-life cold-war soviet-union armageddon repeating-the-past live-and-learn struggles-quotes power-struggles fear-quote fear-of-unknown soviet-occupation stalemate treaty moscow history-repeating-itself political-quandary political-quotes politics-observation regression fears-and-doubts sphere-of-influence nuclear-power forces-of-darkness red-army checks-and-balances military-history military-theory weapons-of-mass-destruction geopolitics crimea historical-perspective troops nato soviet-russia caucasus conflict-management international-community checkmate power-struggle nuclear-proliferation eastern-europe inexorably defences regressing escalation sliding end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it poor-judgement lack-of-judgement warmonger spine-chilling destruction-of-us caucasus-region impasse international-relationships russian-federation cool-response eastern-european geopolitical-forces geopolitical-tension mexican-standoff moscow-rules one-upmanship quandary repeated-mistake rules-of-engagement sabre-rattling shiver-quote standoff