Castle Report

The Castle Report

• The U.S. and Russia Have Common Interests
  Darrell Castle talks about the wars currently on-going in the world and how they are being used to form a new order of the world. Transcription / Notes THE U.S. AND RUSSIA HAVE COMMON INTERESTS Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report. This is Friday, the 21st day of March in the year of our Lord 2025. I will be talking about the subject I hate the most, and that is war which seems to be almost everywhere. The partial ceasefire in Ukraine, the open fire now in Gaza, and the U.S. war in the Red Sea/Gulf of Aden and Bab-el-Mandab against the Houthis. War shapes the world order and I guess it always has. For example, the military defeat of Napoleon in 1814 led to the Congress of Vienna which cemented Great Britain as the leader of the new world order instead of France. I suppose since those countries controlled the world it would be OK to call that a world war resulting in the new order which existed until World War One or 1914. The victors in WW l set the order with the formation of the League of Nations which totally collapsed when Germany decided that it would be a better world leader than Britain. The victors in World War ll formed the new order with the United States as its leader and the United Nations to cement the order permanently. The Soviet Union, which was one of the victors in WW ll didn’t accept the U.S. as world leader and that resulted in a 40 year long world order which became the cold war. The end of the cold war brought an end to the Soviet Union which dissolved into the Russian Federation. The global elite of the world had to find a way to continue the struggle to feed the eternal death machine so the conflict between NATO and Russia continued. We won’t move one inch closer to Russia Reagan told Gorbachev but later presidents reneged on that promise and the struggle continued. NATO was formed out of the shared belief that the Soviet Union was a direct threat to Western Europe and so an alliance pledging together that if one were attacked it would be considered an attack against all. The colonial possessions of the members were to be excepted from that deal as the French possessed Vietnam or Indochina as it was known then. That agreement didn’t change much over the years and so the world order remained in a post-World War Two state of mind with the United States growing ever stronger militarily and Europe growing ever weaker. Europe was fine with it because all those countries could let their militaries deteriorate since the U.S. had their backs. The Europeans did not even live up to the paltry, relatively speaking, of 5% on defense that the NATO agreement called for. The U.S. constantly urged them to spend more but why should they because the U.S, nuclear umbrella was there to cover them. Donald Trump appeared on the scene and started his America First rhetoric exposing the obvious that the NATO agreement and the way it was enforced was extremely unfair to the U.S. The Europeans were stuck and have continued to be stuck in a 1939 mindset which told them the Russians are coming, but the Russians never came. They wanted to constantly poke the bear but they had nothing with which to defend themselves against the bear. The U.S. wanted a unipolar world with the U.S. at the head and the Europeans were fine with that as long as they could spend their tax revenue on their welfare and other social relief programs to pacify the masses. In the meantime, the U.S. and its people languished under the ever-increasing weight of 36 trillion of debt increasing by 2 trillion per year. The weight of constant wars and constantly increasing burdens of wounded veterans to care for, the people becoming ever more impoverished, the middle class driven into poverty and unpayable debt. Now, I’m taking a little poetic license here folks and speaking for Donald Trump but I think it went something like this. Trump takes office having already looked at the world and seen the order of it.
• Resetting the Global Order
  Darrell talks about several things that taken together, in his opinion, represent an attempt by President Trump to reset the global order. Transcription / Notes RESETTING THE GLOBAL ORDER Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report. This is Friday the 14th day of March in the year of our Lord 2025. I will be talking about several things that taken together, in my opinion, represent an attempt by President Trump to reset the global order. Some of those things include a proposal for a ceasefire in Ukraine, along with the US and Europe’s special relationship and the attitude of the US toward Russia. US national security advisor Mike Waltz and Secretary of State Marco Rubio went to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia for talks with Ukrainian officials about a proposal for ending the Ukraine/Russia war. It’s a very difficult thing to end a war unless you are able to raise your flag over the enemy capitol. Getting two warring sides to just stop fighting and stand in place is very difficult because one side or the other always has the advantage or momentum and wants to keep it. This particular peace conference was apparently brokered by the Saudis who had several representatives in attendance. One important party missing from the meeting was Russia which will obviously have to be onboard if the ceasefire has any chance of working. Ukraine agreed to the discussions and quickly agreed to the deal when Zelensky’s visit to the oval office didn’t go so well and Trump cut off aid and Intelligence information to Ukraine. Without that intelligence including targeting information, Ukraine could not prosecute the war so Zelensky swallowed his pride and accepted the deal. Now, it has to go to Russia for approval and that might be difficult because Russia seems to think it has the advantage. Several Russian missile attacks against Ukraine have occurred since the deal was made but that is probably just trying to appear dominant before Putin talks to Trump or whoever it turns out to be. This ceasefire proposal is set to last for 30 days as a way to start negotiations to end the war. Again, it’s difficult because both sides think they have won or at least should win and winners expect to dictate terms not to negotiate. Trump’s attitude has been to let Zelensky know that the US billions were going to stop flowing and it is in his best interest to make the best deal possible. That deal will not include NATO membership or a US guarantee of security for Ukraine, hopefully. Why couldn’t Europe just admit Ukraine to NATO on its own? No, it can’t because admitting new members has to be unanimous. Rubio was quoted as saying that Ukraine has to be ready to do difficult things and Russia would also have to make difficult decisions. When asked what difficult decisions he said that both sides would have to conclude that the conflict could not be resolved by military means. Rubio said that the President wants the war to end and Ukraine has accepted that premise and we hope the Russians will accept it as well. My interpretation of that diplomat speak is that Ukraine will have to permanently concede the eastern Russian speaking provinces along with Crimea to Russia. Who will maintain this proposed ceasefire line, I’m not sure but I hope it’s not the USA just as it does in Korea. No, that would be very unacceptable and I hope that Trump would not go along. Yesterday, in advance of any US—Russia meeting Putin rejected the ceasefire as proposed without “substantial changes.” He said he wanted the root cause of the conflict eliminated but he did not say what he thinks the root cause is. He wants guarantees that the Ukrainians will not mobilize, train soldiers or receive weapons during the ceasefire. These proposals seem reasonable assuming that Putin would also agree to abide by them although his announcement did not say that he would. He made the announcement just as the American envoy, Steve Witkoff was arriving in Moscow so perhaps...
• Jefferson Was Right About Europe
  Darrell Castle talks about Europe, Zelensky, and the war in Ukraine as well as the President's speech to Congress and the Democrat reaction to it. JEFFERSON WAS RIGHT ABOUT EUROPE Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report. This is Friday the 7th day of March in the year of our Lord 2025. I will be talking about Europe, Zelensky, and the war in Ukraine as well as the President’s speech to Congress and the Democrat reaction to it. I will start today’s Report with a disclaimer. When I talk about Democrats and say nasty but always truthful things about them, when I refer to them in some disparaging terms I am talking about the politicians and their useful idiots in the media and not about individual Americans who identify as Democrats many of whom are dear friends or even relatives. So, I have no apology to offer for anything I have said or will say today about Democrat politicians because if I did not believe my position to be true I would certainly change it. In addition, there are some Republican politicians almost as bad as Democrats, almost but not quite because they know better but are simply reacting as the self-serving political hypocrites that they are. The title of this Castle Report is taken from a quote by Thomas Jefferson offered more than 200 years ago but just as true today as it was then. “I have deemed it fundamental for the United States never to take active part in the quarrels of Europe. Their political interests are entirely distinct from ours. Their mutual jealousies, their balance of power, their complicated alliances, their forms and principles of government, are all foreign toys. They are nations of eternal war.” Yes, they are nations of eternal war and since the end of World War II we, the United States, have been as well because we have served as the military enforcement arm of European nations, especially NATO members. Some events have recently come to pass that give me reason to hope that situation might be at least starting to change. One of those events was the meltdown in the Oval Office by President Zelensky of Ukraine. Why would a man with almost no cards in his hand at least no winning ones make such a defiant spectacle of himself in the office of the President of the United States. The New York Post has the answer for us: “Before meeting Trump, Zelensky met with anti-Trump Democrats who advised him to reject the terms of the mineral deal the president was offering, according to Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn). Just finished a meeting with President Zelensky here in Washington. He confirmed that the Ukrainian people will not support a fake peace agreement where Putin gets everything he wants and there are no security arrangements for Ukraine. He attached a picture of Zelensky at a conference table, with Murphy seated on the opposite side..” Some people have said that by listening to the democrats Zelensky betrayed his country and its people, but my question is what about the Democrats. Who or what did they betray. They betrayed the American people and hindered the President’s ability to end a war that has cost hundreds of thousands of lives. That could be a violation of the Logan act regarding foreign policy, but it is at least dangerous and reckless uncaring behavior. Trump offered Zelensky a deal whereby he could express his gratitude to America by ceding the mineral rights to the very valuable rare earth minerals under the Ukrainian soil. You can hear my Castle Report called Ukraine is a Gold Mine by going to the index and finding 6-14-24. In that podcast I explain that neocon Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, tells us that we have to stay in the Ukraine war because it has a lot of valuable minerals under its soil. Trump knows about the valuable minerals and he therefore proposed that Zelensky sign an agreement ceding the rights to those resources to the US in return for continued military and other economic support.