Running Thoughts on War

Photo by Lisa van Vliet on Unsplash

Early on the morning of Saturday, February 28, 2026, instead of a sleepy first smile, Blue Eyes showed me her phone with a headline about our attack on Iran. Wars are stupid. The operative maxim is that war is a failure of diplomacy. But what if our diplomacy was not just a failure but a sham? What if we started a war with no plan other than the blatant exercise of power? What if we started a war with no clear justification, no objectives, and no idea of how the war would end?

By the time this essay is published the war will be over but, maybe not. Maybe it will be another of our endless wars where normal life here relentlessly goes on, and we are oblivious to the cost (our taxes pay for more guns than butter), the destruction of another country (nation building in our image), and the killing (”collateral damage” is killing non-combatants and “acceptable losses” are not acceptable).

Twice a week Blue Eyes goes to water fitness. If I’m around, I try to have a light breakfast ready for her when she gets home. We were out of breakfast sausage, milk, and English muffins this morning.

First thing in the morning is not my favorite time for exercise. My parts are creaky, my attitude borders on hostile, and I do not enjoy the cold as I used to. This is not northern-tier cold that seeps into the bones — the standard winter weather from Maine to Minnesota to Montana, but Colorado cold, with a clothing-piercing wind and a bright toasty sun.

We cannot win a war with just air power. Regime change requires an army on the ground that is physically in control of the country, and able to enforce its will. But a land war in Iran is simply not reasonable because we do not have the military resources in place (assembling an expeditionary force would take months), geography is against us (invading a mountainous Iran would literally be an uphill battle), and Congress is not going to declare war when there is no direct threat to the Homeland (we cannot afford another endless war).

To gear up for a run is a pain in winter. Tights, bike shorts, a base layer plus a T-shirt and shoes. Then a trundle out to the garage to don a running jacket, watch cap, gloves, and a Holubar day pack from the last century that has a haul ring for rock climbing and a metal clip to attach the belly band to a sewn-in metal O ring. The haul ring looks like it has a half-life of 500 years, and there are none of those ubiquitous three-pronged, black plastic, side-release buckles that are easy to smash and a serious pain to replace.

With the exception of Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan, we as a major power have mostly manipulated other nations into keeping the peace since 1945 through diplomacy, corporate colonization, significant economic aid or sanctions as needed, and as a last option, the threat of military force. And in the aforementioned countries, we can see how well military force has worked out for us. At best we achieved a draw, but mostly the locals chased us out of their countries.

Our neighborhood grocery store is called Lucky’s and is a mile away. The store has just about every ingredient a cook could need, priced at about 15% more than what those items would cost at a standard-sized grocery store. The store owners have succumbed to the Whole Foods model with natural, organic, gluten-free, micro-plastic-free, non-GMO, ethically-sourced products such as mayonnaise that tastes like tan-colored alien goo that was concocted in a huge vat in someone’s garage.

My run starts from our driveway and slightly uphill through the neighborhood. Calling this running is somewhat of an exaggeration. Wikipedia says, “Running is a gait with an aerial phase in which all feet are above the ground (though there are exceptions).” If there is a point in my running stride where both feet are off the ground it is only for a fraction of a second. Mine is more of a flat-footed shuffle that is in no way subject to exceptions — it is a shuffle, pure and simple, that seldom exceeds the speed of fast walking.

What does America gain from a war with Iran if we are not going to take physical control of the country? Zip. We will have spent billions of dollars turning towns into rubble and gained little or nothing in return for our efforts. Do we have a goal for this war?

Of course not. The Red Asset who started this mess is looking at the mid-terms with a great deal of fear. Initially, he and the rotters who enable him, just rolled over us. We felt simultaneously angry and helpless. But there is about Americans an inertia in dealing with evil until the evil touches us. And then there is a slow, yet implacable and relentless reaction. There is little doubt the House will have a Democratic majority after the November mid-terms. If this administration continues to make stupid decisions, as it no doubt will continue to do, the Republicans could also lose the Senate. If that happens, the Red Asset will be impeached, jobless, and under indictment for the rest of his sordid life.

Remember Bill Clinton calling a missile strike on a pharmaceutical factory in Sudan just after the Monica Lewinsky affair became public? The Red Asset is doing the same thing to distract us on an order of magnitude larger scale. There is nothing like a war to get the media focused on something other than domestic disasters; affordability, income inequality, climate change, inflation, infrastructure rot, and pedophile suspicions, to mention just a few.

Seems like half of the folks in my neighborhood are retired, because there are a number of boomers out puttering around their houses or out for walks. We say good morning to them. The cruise to the store is easy as I pad along the asphalt. I run in the street because I have a theory that the asphalt ‘gives’ a little under my feet, where the sidewalk cement feels like I’m running on a slab of rock. If I run on cement, my legs ache when I get home.

But then there is also the quid-pro-quo idea. It starts with the observable fact that the Red Asset is all about money, power, and self-aggrandizement.

In 2017 he joined in an unforgettable sword dance in Saudi Arabia and announced that the Saudis would invest 200 billion in American infrastructure, and the deals from middle eastern nations have kept on coming — a 747 here and a hotel there, investment in his family cryptocurrency. The middle eastern kingdoms own the Red Asset and his family.

The problem with running in the street is avoiding neighborhood drivers who are simply not thinking as they fly down familiar streets. I have done it myself. I get to where I am going and have little memory of how fast I was going to get there. So, the operative thought for neighborhood road running is “watch out, that fool is thinking about something else other than driving in his neighborhood.”

Iran and its proxies (e.g., Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthi, to name a few) have created chaos in the middle east since the Islamic Revolution in 1979. As the vassals of middle eastern kingdoms, the Red Asset’s family have enriched themselves with all sorts of deals. A debt has come due, the kingdoms want Iran disabled and the proxies destroyed. Unfortunately, the Red Asset has misused the power of this country in an utterly stupid attempt to pay the debt.

I get to the store, buy the aforementioned items, check out, and start my run back home with an additional seven pounds on my back. That is not much weight when I think about it until I start moving it down the street. I am simply amazed at what it feels like to run with an additional seven pounds.

Or maybe the Red Asset is just nuts. He only knows marketing, cheating, lying, reaction, and retribution. Outside of those remarkable attributes, he has no clue about how the world works and worse yet, no plan. Those sorts of behaviors take a toll on a person. Like the inflammation that leads to stroke, heart attack, and any number of diseases, these odious behaviors lead to brain rot that manifests itself in every action he takes and every word he speaks.

And then the huge lightbulb (LED for sure) goes off over my head. “If I lost seven pounds of my portly self, I could actually run. Yes, I could have both feet off the ground at the same time.

Boomer neighbors would look up in awe and say, “Look at him, he is actually running.”

Is that going to happen? Yes, I dropped out of running several years ago and am slowly coming back. I have no idea of why I want to run again, other than the fact that running calms me down about the criminals attempting to run this nation, helps me focus and get some writing done without slamming into the wall of doubt, and wandering off to walk the neighborhood with Carly, our dog.

This war must end.

The Red Asset must be turned out of office.

Work for peace.

Take back our country.

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