Castle Report

The Castle Report

• Greater Israel and the Prospects for Peace
  Darrell Castle talks about Israel, Bibi Netanyahu and his project for Greater Israel. What is the concept of Greater Israel and how does it relate to the Israeli destruction of Gaza? Is this retaliation, self defense or is there more to it than that? Transcription / Notes GREATER ISRAEL AND THE PROSPECTS FOR PEACE Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report. This is Friday the 22nd day of August in the year of our Lord 2025. I will be talking about Israel, about Bibi Netanyahu and his project for a Greater Israel. Is he really working to expand Israel’s borders across the Middle East or is it simply self-defense. Is the Israeli destruction of Gaza retaliation and protection from terrorists or is there more to it than that. There are many things I could be talking about right now such as the Trump-Putin meeting in Alaska followed by Trump’s “summoning” Zelensky to Washington, followed by Giorgia Meloni’s recognition of Europe being left out of the deal. She quickly called Europe’s leaders and suggested they accompany Zelensky to Washington to plead their case before the real leader of the world. Ms. Meloni appears to be the upcoming star in Europe but instead of those subjects I turn my attention back to the Middle East, which is the center of much of the world’s trouble right now. I will confess that I never believed the rumors of the Project for Greater Israel and thought it was just that, rumors, until now. What changed my mind well, it was just paying attention and following the actions and words of the leader of Israel, Bibi Netanyahu who has now confirmed for us and the whole of the Middle East that he is, in fact, on course for a Greater Israel. He did an interview with an Israeli television channel about a week ago and in that interview he stated unequivocally that he was committed to the concept of a Greater Israel and that he believes that his expansionist policies and dreams are a biblical project. In other words, to paraphrase Ghostbusters, he is on a mission from God. I must say that in response to his words and actions that he views the nature of God differently from my view. He said that the project is a generational thing passed on from leader to leader but in the past leaders have missed opportunities and made mistakes which he is endeavoring to correct. He did not state specifically what countries or territories would be included in Greater Israel, but it is clear that it goes way beyond historical Palestine, Gaza and the West Bank. He has already destroyed many of the surrounding countries to the point that they hardly have governments anymore. Think of Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon, and also Yemen which has a government apparently run by terrorists. Which country is left and which country is often referred to as the head of the snake. I guess that means that from Iran spews all the venom that is financing supplying and encouraging terrorism across the region. The snake’s head must be severed from its body and he has an ongoing project to do just that. Let me get into a little of what seems to be going on in Iran right now. This week Israel continued its war against Iran by conducting airstrikes across the country. Fires burned across Tehran and around the country including a gigantic explosion and fire at an oil storage depot. Israel then, has reduced and is in the process of destroying not just Iran’s capacity to make war, but its capacity to live and feed its people. The conditions inside Iran right now appear to be terrible and not just from Israeli attacks but because Iran is suffering from an extreme drought and water crises. There has been a decline in rainfall, granted, but also decades of mismanagement of water resources and crumbling infrastructure from war and neglect. Sometimes the priorities of our leaders are not the same as ours and the priority for the last 46 years in Iran has been the development of nuclear weapons,
• The Peace President Returns — Maybe
  Darrell Castle talks about the face-to-face meeting being conducted today between President Trump and Russian Premier Vladimir Putin in Anchorage, Alaska. He will discuss which player has the most at risk and the most to lose from this meeting. Results aren't known yet, but its promise is something to discuss. Transcription / Notes THE PEACE PRESIDENT RETURNS—MAYBE Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report. This is Friday the 15th day of August in the year of our Lord 2025. I will be talking about the face-to-face meeting being conducted today between President Trump and Russian Premier Vladimir Putin in Anchorage, Alaska. Which player has the most at risk and the most to lose from this meeting. We don’t know the results of the meeting yet but its promise is something to discuss. Why have this meeting in Alaska and not in some European Capitol. Who knows for sure but a reasonable guess would be that Putin is under sanctions that make it very difficult for him to travel in Europe and after all, Russia and Alaska go way back. I won’t go back any further than the 1860’s when both nations were involved in very disastrous wars with very different results. The U.S. Civil War resulted in a Union victory but cost many lives and split the country for over 100 years. Russia was involved in a war in Crimea against England and France which it lost and which also had catastrophic loss of life and completely depleted the Russian treasury. Czar Alexander ll was desperate for cash and in 1867 he negotiated a deal with the U.S. to sell the Americans Alaska for $7.1 million. That seems like a bargain for the U.S. and it was but remember that was about 165 years ago when $7.1 million was real money. This week, in contrast, the U.S. passed $37 trillion in debt and is now dangerously close to $1 trillion per year in interest payments. What about today, why Alaska. For one thing Anchorage lies 4,350 miles from Moscow and 3,400 miles from Washington so it is a comparable trip for both. It was hastily arranged and we are told that the meeting last week between Mr. Putin and Trump’s negotiator, Steve Witkoff, brought a request from Mr. Putin for a face-to-face with President Trump which was quickly agreed to. Vice President Vance told us that Mr. Zelensky will not be in attendance because his presence would not be productive. I don’t blame the U.S. side for that and I would not have invited him either. This is a war between the U.S. and Russia and everybody seems to know that except Mr. Zelensky. His country has provided the bodies for the proxy grist mill but it is a U.S. war. My hope and my prayer are that Trump will continue his quest for the Noble Peace Prize but in regard to Mr. Zelensky, after 45 years as a lawyer and after countless mediations I have learned that more is usually accomplished if the two competing sides are kept separate with the impartial mediator going back and forth. Ukraine and Gaza are two blights on Trump’s Nobel Peace Prize resume at this point but this is a chance to resolve one of them, and it is right in his hands today. The Europeans have basically already rejected the deal even though they don’t know what it is yet. If he makes a deal with Putin and the Europeans reject it if I were him I would just say O.K. since you prefer war to peace you pay for it because there will be no more American weapons and no more American money poured down this rat hole. Polls show that 70% of Ukrainians want to end the war right now. Zelensky may want to fight to the last Ukrainian and last U.S. dollar but his people don’t.  Let’s take a quick look at Trump’s peace resume thus far. I argue that in many ways he is the most anti-war President in recent history. In his first term he brokered the Abraham Accords that normalized relations between Israel and four Arab nations, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco. The agreement ended hostility that had existed since Israel’s founding...
• Colonel Paul Tibbets and the Atomic Age
  Darrell Castle recounts the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, around the 80th anniversary of the events and where it leaves us in the world today. Transcription / Notes COLONEL PAUL TIBBETS AND THE ATOMIC AGE Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report. This is Friday the 8th day of August in the year of our Lord 2025. Two days ago, on August 6th we remembered the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan. Tomorrow the 9th of August is the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan. I will talk about those events and about where they leave us in the world today. During World War ll the United States was in a technological race with Germany to develop a war winning atomic weapon. The U.S. had some of the smartest people on earth working on the weapon which came to be called “The Manhattan Project.” Einstein gave his theoretical advice and Oppenheimer ran the effort to build a potentially world destroying weapon. No one knew for sure what this weapon would do when it was unleashed. The only thing certain was that its explosive power would be like nothing seen before on earth. I am certainly no scientist and I am not scientifically educated but as I understand it the microscopic particle that makes up matter, called the atom contains enormous energy and if it could be split that energy would be unleashed by way of explosive power. Some scientists were afraid that the explosion would not be able to be contained and would continue until it destroyed the entire universe but they went ahead with it despite the unknown. The allies throughout the war fought a clandestine effort to prevent German scientists from finishing their work first. Many people gave their lives in that effort but eventually German industry was destroyed and only Japan was left. The decision to use the weapon against Japan was President Truman’s alone. I understand from much reading on the subject that he was in Europe to conclude the German surrender when he received word that the weapon known as “Little Boy” was ready. His response was “use it.” Winston Churchill once famously said, “I think history will be kind to me because I intend to write it.” The point is that history is written by the winners not the losers. I have read many histories of the end of the war and the decision to use the bomb and my conclusion is that the historical perspective depends on your world view today. I read something this week which asserted that Japan was begging to surrender but Truman wanted to use the bomb so he ignored them. The supposed reason was to send a message to the Soviet Union that the same thing could happen to them. The Soviet angle as a secondary reason makes sense but I see no evidence of Japan begging to surrender. In fact, after the surrender when MacArthur was proconsul in Japan surviving Japanese troops tried to lead a rebellion against the surrender. The real question for debate is, was the dropping of the atomic bomb justified or was it the most heinous crime against humanity in history. Everyone has his opinion, but from the perspective of the Marines and soldiers on the beaches and in the jungles of Asia I doubt that they wanted to invade the Japanese home islands. Perhaps if some of those who condemn the decision had been at Tarawa, Saipan, Iwo Jima, or Okinawa they would see it differently. In any event on August 6th, 1945, a B-29 Super fortress flown by Colonel Paul W. Tibbets Jr and with a crew of 12 more men lifted off the runway on the island of Tinian and headed for Japan and a mission that would forever alter our world. I saw an interview with Colonel Tibbets just before he died and the interviewer gave him a chance to express his sorrow at what he did but he said no I have no regrets. “I viewed my mission as one to save lives. I didn’t bomb Pearl Harbor. I didn’t start the war. But I was going to finish it.”