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TAMPA BAY • FEBRUARY 23-24 2026

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The Inevitability of War

There might be something about writers that makes them get in the way of more shit than others might.

Case in point: I know I’ll take heat from folks who’ll say I shouldn’t do what I’m about to tell you I do. I should disconnect. I shouldn’t check any messages or anything first thing in the morning. I should do whatever it is they think I should do, and I shouldn’t do whatever it is they think I shouldn’t do. And on it goes.

Nevertheless, the first thing I do on awakening every day is grab my phone and check my assorted feeds. One of those happens to be Apple News because I happen to have an iPhone. When I grabbed it Tuesday morning, some of the shit I ended up in the way of was this, from The Guardian: “Russia accuses Nato of ‘proxy war’ in Ukraine as US hosts crucial defence summit”. Here’s the drift:

Russia’s foreign minister has accused Nato of fighting a proxy war by supplying military aid to Ukraine, as defence ministers gathered in Germany for US-hosted talks on supporting Ukraine through what one US general called a “very critical” few weeks. Sergei Lavrov told Russian state media: “Nato, in essence, is engaged in a war with Russia through a proxy and is arming that proxy. War means war.”

I’d like you to think about that for a moment.

What our pal, Sergei, is saying is that Russia, which started a war in Ukraine, is now the victim of a proxy war waged by NATO. Here’s how it works: A war is a war if it’s waged against Russia. Conversely, a war is not a war if it’s started by Russia. Got that? Good. Sergei says you’re his pal, too.

Sanity Check

Somebody asked me the other day why I don’t believe in peace and love. Good grief. I do believe in peace and love. My life is full of peace and love. But I also believe in reality.

Reality tells me there are people in the world who don’t give a damn about my life or the peace and love in it. Reality tells me there are people in the world in whose lives there’s precious little peace and love. Reality tells me there are people in the world who choose to deprive others of peace in love for their own self-serving, egotistical, narcissistic aims. Reality tells me there’s war in the world. There’s always war in the world. And there will always be war in the world until one of those wars succeeds in blowing the world to Hell.

My Spidey Sense tells me there isn’t enough peace and love in the world to make megalomaniacs like Uncle Vlad and his lackey, Sergei, cut the crap.

If people like that diminish the lives of others (they do), it’s only a matter of time until some other authoritarian jackasses show up to diminish ours … if we let them.

I don’t fool myself about my ability to do anything alone. But I don’t intend to let them do it.

At the very least, I don’t intend to shut up while they do it.

Mark O'Brien
Mark O'Brienhttps://obriencg.com/
I’m a business owner. My company — O’Brien Communications Group (OCG) — is a B2B brand-management and marketing-communication firm that helps companies position their brands effectively and persuasively in industries as diverse as: Insurance, Financial Services, Senior Living, Manufacturing, Construction, and Nonprofit. We do our work so well that seven of the companies (brands) we’ve represented have been acquired by other companies. OCG is different because our business model is different. We don’t bill by the hour or the project. We don’t bill by time or materials. We don’t mark anything up. We don’t take media commissions. We pass through every expense incurred on behalf of our clients at net. We scope the work, price the work, put beginning and end dates on our engagements, and charge flat, consistent fees every month for the terms of the engagements. I’m also a writer by calling and an Irish storyteller by nature. In addition to writing posts for my company’s blog, I’m a frequent publisher on LinkedIn and Medium. And I’ve published three books for children, numerous short stories, and other works, all of which are available on Amazon under my full name, Mark Nelson O’Brien.

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4 CONVERSATIONS

  1. I heartily concur with you Mark. Once Cain caved-in his brother’s skull with a rock committing the first recorded murder; mankind was off to the races. The reptilian brain of man through time and technology still exists and murders his fellow man and nations predicated upon the seven deadly sins. It will always take “just” men to fight and die in “just” wars to keep and defend the spark of good in humankind alive against the inherent evil of the mother sons of Cain.

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