The Castle Report

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Darrell Castle discusses the concept of a war criminal. Who gets to define what a war crime is and once that is established, who determines when someone has committed one of the criminal acts defined as a war crime?

Transcription / Notes

WHAT IS A WAR CRIMINAL?

Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report. This is Friday the 24^th day of July in the year of our Lord 2026. My beat is still war today, but with the added distinction of talking about what some choose to call war criminals. The question for today then is who gets to decide what a war crime is and who decides if someone has committed one of those crimes he has defined as a war crime.

The International Criminal Court, established by the 1998 Rome Statute and beginning operations in 2002 has been given the right to declare certain people war criminals and to issue indictments against that person which should involve arrest and prosecution. We know from our American system that charges and indictment do not make one guilty, but in the minds of certain people it gives an opportunity for selectively prosecuting those with whom they politically disagree.

This war crimes talk started again when NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani ran for office on a promise to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he ever came to New York. Well, Bibi has announced that he will attend the United Nations meeting in NYC to be held in September. The mayor’s plans, announced in an interview with the New York Times, brought a storm of protests from supporters of Bibi including the President of the United States who declared on social media that the mayor’s plans would not and could not happen.

In response the mayor admitted that he is not the president and is not even congress or the U.S. attorney general so his plans would not be fulfilled. He went on video and said his legal team had exhausted “every avenue available” under the law and concluded “we do not have the independent legal authority” to arrest the head of state of a foreign country who is attending a UN meeting which happens to be located in NYC. Some may have reacted with outrage if the mayor had ordered the NYPD to arrest Netanyahu but since he is now not planning to risk that those people are reacting with outrage anyway and calling him a dishonest politician.

I want to leave the mayor and talk about war crimes in general but I can’t do so until I mention the first lady of the city of New York. Yes, right now, as I record this she is conducting a conference for Muslim women with the stated purpose of informing them that Mary, yes that Mary. The mother of Jesus, who delivered the child on that Christmas was not only not Jewish but was actually a Muslim. What, how can that be. Well, it can’t because of a fact apparently unknown to the first lady of our greatest city. That fact is that when Jesus was born, Muhammad, the founder of Islam, was not born for another 570 years.

Well, be that as it may facts are often lost on people today especially when those facts do not fit a person’s world view.

Back to the International Criminal Court which issued the indictment against Prime Minister Netanyahu and has often referred to him as a war criminal. The ICC has no jurisdiction in the United States which refused to join the 125 nations which signed the agreement. I remember the debates around it quite well and the US representatives were afraid that it would be used to prosecute members of the US military engaged in combat in some politically sensitive spot.

Congress instead did the opposite by passing the American Servicemember’s Protection Act which was designed to shield the US personnel from ICC prosecution. The ICC might be seen as a kind of virtue signaling organization or perhaps it is deeply idealistic and committed to peaceful resolution of conflict. How does it select its targets or how does it decide who is a war criminal and who should be left alone. Do you need to be engaged in actual war to be a war criminal or can you simply commit acts of extreme violence.

My own view is that the term war criminal or war crimes is decided by winners. Would Hitler, his generals and bureaucrats have been criminals if they had won the war. Would some division of the UN have ordered them arrested, no of course not, but instead many of them were hanged and some chose cyanide as the best option. Over in Japan several Japanese officers were hanged as war criminals. One general split his stomach open in 1945 but American doctors saved his life so he could be hanged in 1948.

Back in 1908 there was another tribunal, at that time at the Hague, which decided to define rules for the conduct of armed conflict. That tribunal dealt primarily with humane treatment of prisoners of war and dignified rules for how civilians were to be treated. Keep in mind that in 1908 war planes, poison gas, and machine guns had not been invented. I don’t think those people could have imagined the horror that would rain from the sky onto civilian populations for over the next 100 years.

I have studied the war archives from World War ii as much as I could especially after the internet made them all available to anyone. My conclusion is that the US authorities went out of their way to abide by the rules of the Geneva Convention which was part of the Hague series of international agreements. The Geneva convention defined how prisoners of war were to be treated and most nations knew that if they followed it their enemies were more likely to do so.

So, with a few exceptions, it was the policy of the US to follow it and even NAZI Germany followed it to a large degree. The Japanese however, had other ideas. Their treatment of American prisoners was exceptionally brutal. The percentage of prisoners who died in captivity under the Germans was about 2% but under the Japanese it was more like 60%.

Now, let’s return to Bibi for a moment. Is he or is he not a war criminal. To some extent it’s a matter of opinion and is usually determined by the winners. Right now, I would call him a loser at least in the matter of international politics and especially in the matter of armed conflict. He has no friends and everyone in the UN except the US hates him. His cities and military bases are badly damages by Iranian missiles and drones but does any of that make him a war criminal.

No, but he and his IDF have violated virtually every one of the rules for armed conflict established by the various international conventions I just mentioned. He has repeatedly targeted civilians and civilian infrastructure. In fact, he doesn’t recognize the difference between civilian and military targets. Testimony accuses him of mistreating, even torturing prisoners of war and many have accused IDF soldiers of brutally raping them with objects that destroyed their intestines. Testimony seems to indicate that he intends to destroy an entire people group through warfare and starvation.

I would call those things war crimes, but remember the victors get to determine such things and as long as the US military is solidly behind him it’s hard to say he is defeated. In fact, he and his country most likely would cease to exist without the US. He would be arrested if he set foot out of Israel without the US. That brings up an interesting point and that point is that if Donald Trump is his enabler and before Trump Joe Biden received more money in the form of contributions, donations, bribes, or whatever you choose to call them does that make them war criminals too.

During the Nuremberg trials of NAZI officers, a new charge was invented to cover the massive crimes of which those people were accused. Since the normal criminal code of any of the victorious allied nations was insufficient they invented the crime they called crimes against humanity. Is Bibi guilty of crimes against humanity, is Donald Trump.

The president has vowed to attack civilian infrastructure as a result of Iranian attacks against Hormuz shipping and the deaths of US. Soldiers. When I saw that a 19-year-old woman was killed in a missile attack against her base in Jordan I was very destressed. Many of those men who landed at Omaha Beach were 19 years old but they were not beautiful young women with babies ahead of them. In fact, those men fought for people back home like her. They fought for each other and for their families and their way of life which were threatened by a terrible enemy.

The death of that young woman just lays out the complete moral depravity that has infected this government and the entire globalist system. I pray for her family and that we can find a way to prevent such willful death and destruction.

Finally, folks, we’ve talked about the subjective nature of the term War criminal but sometimes the label may be appropriate. I’m certainly tired of sending teenaged women to fight and die for the benefit of a foreign leader and his vision. This country seems to be looting our tax dollars for people who are not American and might legitimately be called war criminals.

God forgive us if that is true.

At least that’s the way I see it,

Until next time folks,

This is Darrell Castle,

Thanks for listening.

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Darrell Castle discusses war once again because it seems that the more we are told a political solution has been reached, the more missiles and drones are fired at more targets. Then retaliation has to come so, no solution.

Transcription / Notes:

THE ENEMY GETS A VOTE

Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report. This is Friday the 17^th day of July in the year of our Lord 2026. My beat today is war once again because it seems that the more we are told a political solution has been reached more missiles and drones are fired at more targets and then retaliation has to come so no solution.

The president is in a difficult position but it is apparently of his own making. He is not an Eisenhower with many years of experience commanding vast armies in some of the biggest campaigns in human history. He instead is forced to rely on his team of advisors and so they tell him where he should go and what the consequences will be. They must have told him that Iran was ripe for the taking and would fall just like Venezuela but Iran is different and any experienced military person should have been able to see that.

Power unhinges people and people who seek it are often unhinged to start with. That is part of the reason Mr. Jefferson told us that every 20 years or so we should have a revolution to reset things such as personal liberty. He reminded us that government agents are not saints or angels but they are instead ordinary humans with all the vices and weaknesses of other ordinary humans.

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Darrell Castle talks about the 4th of July and how Americans traditionally celebrate the independence of our country from England. For those who say they won’t celebrate because they are not getting everything they want from America, I say perhaps you don’t understand what the ideals of America really are supposed to be or perhaps it is because in your heart this is not your country.

Transcription / Notes

250 YEARS OF BEING AMERICAN

Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report. This is Friday the 3^rd day of July in the year of our Lord 2026. Tomorrow is the 4^th of July when traditionally we celebrate the independence of our Country from England. To those who say they won’t celebrate because they are not getting everything they want from America I say perhaps you don’t understand what the ideals of America really are supposed to be or perhaps you don’t celebrate because this is not your country.

That is more than just a snarky, love it or leave it comment, because I have traveled and even lived abroad and when you do that you might like the country you are in but you don’t love it. To love a country, it has to be in your blood or your DNA. Terra Ferma or firm ground or the land under your feet is yours to live on and to defend with your life if necessary. It used to be that almost everyone felt that way so what happened.

Many things have happened but mass immigration from the Third World has had a profound effect on our culture and our politics. Now we elect members of congress who aren’t even American. Many other things happened of course but paramount among them was that our attitude and the attitudes of our politicians changed profoundly. For one thing the new media allowed us to finally get a glimpse at what the global ruling elite really are.

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Darrell Castle talks about Father’s Day, what it means, and why it is important to honor fathers.

Transcription / Notes:

FATHER’S DAY

Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report. This is Friday the 19^th day of June in the year of our Lord 2026. I previously did a Report on Mother’s Day and what it means so today I will be talking about Father’s Day, what it means and why it is important to honor fathers.

Yes, we are two days away from Father’s Day which falls on the 21^st of June this year. It is dedicated as a Federal Holiday falling on the third Sunday of June each year. The holiday was started in Spokane, Washington in 1910 by a woman named Snora Smart Dodd who was inspired by a Mother’s Day sermon and she wanted to honor her father in the same way.

Her father was a Civil War veteran named William Jackson Smart who was the father of 6 children. His wife died in childbirth and he raised his 6 kids alone. His daughter thought that he had lived his life with honor so she persuaded local authorities to set aside a day to honor her father and all the others. In1972 President Nixon made it a federal occasion and now we celebrate it each year by honoring or remembering our fathers.

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Darrell Castle talks about a bill currently working its way through the U.S. Congress which would, if passed, literally integrate the U.S. and Israeli militaries and would put funding for the Israeli military on auto pilot. Will it pass and be signed by the President? Many people seem to think it will so he takes a look at it today.

THE ISRAELIZATION OF THE U.S. MILITARY

Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report. This is Friday the 12^th of June in the year of our Lord 2026. I will be talking about a bill currently working its way through the United States Congress which would, if passed, literally integrate the U.S. and Israeli militaries and would put funding for the Israeli military on auto pilot. Will it pass and be signed by the President. Many people seem to think it will so we take a look at it today.

Yes, unfortunately it seems that certain members of the House of Representatives and the Senate of the United States are now ready to complete the process of uniting the two countries militaries. The first bill introduced in the House would have literally combined the two. Many of the Israel first politicians are already dual citizens so why not complete the process and stop all the hypocrisy. Just go ahead and make the U.S. military the official enforcement arm of Israeli foreign policy.

The most egregious provision of the original bill is that the benefits due to American veterans like me, such as medical and educational benefits would have also been available to all Israeli veterans. That would have been a supreme insult to every American veteran who has ever served. The last time I checked there were about 15 million living American veterans so why not just insult them all while they are still alive. Just tell them all that “your service to this nation meant nothing” but certainly no more to America than an Israeli veteran meant to America.

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Darrell Castle discusses President Trump’s angry, profanity laced tirade directed at Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel. Did it really happen and if so why did it happen and if it did not happen, why say that it did.

Transcriptions / Notes

TRUMP UNLOADS ON NETANYAHU

Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report. This is Friday the 5^th day of June in the year of our Lord 2026. My beat today is war and as usual there is no shortage of war to talk about but today I discuss President Trump’s angry, profanity laced tirade directed at Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel. Did it really happen and if so why did it happen and if it did not happen then why say that it did.

Its no secret that Trump wants the U.S. role in the war against Iran ended and quickly. The war has placed the world’s economy in jeopardy and therefore its end is imperative. To that end Trump has been negotiating with somebody representing Iran while using Pakistan as the broker. Every time it looks positive and Trump announces that fighting has stopped it turns out to be a little premature.

Trump says we have a deal ending the war and fighting has ceased. In response gas prices in the U.S. come down and the stock market soars. The next step is for Israel to continue attacking in Lebanon as if there were no peace talks. Apparently Trump got tired of it this week and placed a call to the Prime Minister. The story, reported at first by people physically present for the call, and later admitted by the President himself went something like this.

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Darrell Castle talks about the resignation of Tulsi Gabbard from her position as Director of National Intelligence, and why she made the decision to resign. Was it because of her husband’s illness or something else.

Transcription / Notes

TULSI’S GONE

Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report. This is Friday the 29^th day of May in the year of our Lord 2026. I will be talking about the resignation of Tulsi Gabbard from her position as Director of National Intelligence, and about why Tulsi made the decision to resign. Was her decision because of her husband’s illness or was it something else.

Tulsi never seemed to fit into Washington like a typical Washington politician. She never seemed willing to lie and cheat her way to the top as is typical of Washington. From the beginning of her prominence, she seemed a little too honest and too forthright for Washington politics. Nevertheless, she was a politician having served as a Democrat in congress from the state of Hawaii.

She left congress and ran for president as a Democrat but lost in the primary to Joe Biden. She became disenchanted with the Democrat Party and decided to back President Trump in his run for that office. President Trump appointed her Director of National Intelligence, in theory the most important national security position in the country. The U.S. now has 18 intelligence agencies or departments if you count their various components and they all report to the Director of National Intelligence, but once in the office I imagine that the DNI found out who holds the real power in the intelligence world.

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Darrell Castle talks about President Trump’s recent summit with Premier Xi in China and points out the similarities with President Nixon’s summit in China in 1972.

Transcription / Notes

NIXON WENT TO CHINA TOO

Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report. This is Friday the 22^nd day of May in the year of our Lord 2026. President Trump just completed a three-day historic summit with Premier Xi in China. He is not the first President to visit China since President Nixon made that trip in 1972 when China was a far different nation than today as it was in the throes of suffering through the Maoist revolution.

This is the Friday before Memorial Day when we pause to remember the fallen and for most it is the start of a 3-day weekend, but for Joan and I it is a different sort of anniversary to remember. Forty-nine years ago, on this date we saw each other for the first time because we were introduced on a blind date with mutual friends. So, we met forty-nine years ago on this date and we have been together ever since but our actual anniversary, the forty-nine will be in December.

This Memorial Day falls 81 years after the end of World War ll, seventy-seven years after the end of the Korean War, and fifty-one years after the end of the Vietnam War. I guess the other wars, the desert wars, are still going on. Since we are into a little nostalgia this week and to prevent burying the lead it was 54 years ago that Nixon made his historic trip to China. It was historic because China and the US, although friends in World War ll had been bitter enemies for 23 years or since the Maoist revolution.

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Darrell Castle returns to the discussion of war by talking about a war not spoken of so much since it has been driven from the headlines by the war against Iran.

Transcription / Notes

VLADIMIR PUTIN, DONALD TRUMP, AND THE DECLINE OF EMPIRES

Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report. This is Friday the 15^th day of May in the year of our Lord 2026. My beat today is once again war but we visit a war not spoken of so much since it has been driven from the headlines by the war against Iran. Yes, we don’t hear much about Ukraine these days but it continues to cost lives, and resources and it continues to threaten the global geopolitical order.

I’m sure you remember, if you are a long-term sufferer of these Reports, that back in 2014 in the eastern provinces of Ukraine the people voted overwhelmingly to become or remain part of the Russian Federation but that decision didn’t sit well with Victoria Nuland who was the U.S. State Department representative there. She helped instigate a revolution that replaced the pro-Russian government with one more pro Europe and that led to a Russian invasion and the current war.

Mr. Putin, like President Trump, has found that sometimes wars are easier to get into than they are to get out of. I remember from the war archives reading the discussions from the Japanese general staff when they were planning the battle of Midway. The admiral who was to command their carriers said this will work if the Americans do exactly what we expect and want them to. Well, the Americans didn’t do what the Japanese expected and the Ukrainians haven’t done what the Russians expected.