Scream Loudly and Carry No Stick at All

Podcast: Download

Subscribe: RSS | More

Darrell Castle talks about President Biden’s commencement address to the graduating class at the United States Naval Academy last Friday and how his address reflects American foreign policy and the future service of those young Navy Ensigns and Marine Second Lieutenants as they go forth to project American power around the world.

Transcription / Notes

SCREAM LOUDLY AND CARRY NO STICK AT ALL

Hello this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report. This is Friday the 3^rd of June in the year of our Lord 2022 and in this Report, I will be talking about President Biden’s commencement address to the graduating class at the United States Naval Academy this past Friday, May 27^th as well as how that address reflects American foreign policy and the future service of those young Navy Ensigns, and Marine Second Lieutenants, as they go forth to project American power around the world.

I can’t begin this Report without reminding you that tomorrow June 4^th is the 80^th anniversary of the Battle of Midway. That battle fought in the dark and desperate early months of World War ll changed the course of the War and the course of history in general.  Due to the sacrifice and courage of all those naval officers and men of the U.S. Navy, Japan’s ultimate defeat became inevitable, but it took three more years of bloodshed and atomic horror before they would accept it.

The President of the United States celebrated Memorial Day by delivering the commencement address to the graduating officers at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland on Friday May 27^th. I’m not going to indulge you by making tired jokes about his slurred delivery, his confusion, his inability to pronounce words or to say the correct words because all that is old news now. He did make some terrible gaffes and he did continue his creepy habit of leaning over the podium and whispering. He did do a lot of literal screaming when talking about Russia to these young officers.

 What he did not say was to me, far more important than what he did say. Just on a brief inventory he did not mention the 80^th anniversary that I just discussed. It would have been a perfect time to tell them that a worthwhile goal for their naval careers would be to just begin to live up to the courage and sacrifice of those men at Midway. Most of these officers will undoubtably be posted to the Pacific where there is a growing threat of war with China thanks to his loose lips. He threatened war with China over Taiwan when answering a reporter’s question in Japan. Would the U.S. military come to the aid of Taiwan in case of a Chinese attack? Yes, he said that’s our commitment.

I wonder if he is so far gone that he doesn’t know that is not our commitment and never has been, unless of course he has changed it and was just announcing the change. He undid about 46 years of American policy and relative peace with China with one sentence. What is the most important job of a U.S. President? One might argue that it is to prevent nuclear war. This man seems unaware of that job requirement and is increasingly willing to roll the dice with Russia and China. Another thing he could have told the graduates is that you are going in harm’s way, and you will be the tip of the spear delivering your aircraft and its ordinance where needed. China is a big problem now, thanks to my leadership and so, a lot will be demanded and expected of you, but I know you are up to it, and you have had the best training in the world to prepare.

None of that was said of course, nothing to bolster them and to uplift them for the many years of service, apart from loved ones, that lies ahead of them. Instead, he chose to make the occasion about him instead of them. I’m certain he is unfamiliar with Teddy Roosevelt’s line from which I drew the title of this Report. Walk softly and carry a big stick the Bull Moose famously said. By that line Roosevelt was emphasizing that diplomacy is the correct way to conduct international relations and the big stick should only be used as a deterrent when all else fails.

This President screams a lot and for evidence I give you his two-minute screaming rant against Vladimir Putin. He apparently intended to stir up these graduates and get them fired up about going to war against a nuclear power. He attacked Putin’s “brutal, brutal war in Ukraine: Not only is he trying to take over Ukraine, he’s literally trying to wipe out the culture and identity of the Ukrainian people, attacking schools, nurseries, hospitals, museums with no other purpose than to eliminate a culture. A direct assault on the fundamental tenets of rule-based international order.”

 I must point out that the transcript prepared by the White House corrects some of his gaffes such as saying North Korea when he meant South Korea and his inability to pronounce certain words, but it also does not convey the display of anger that he exhibited by shouting. My favorite whopper to these future navy and Marine Corps officers was about, you guessed it climate change.

“Over the past few years, we’ve seen how interconnected the world is. The deadly pandemic has impacted not just our own schooling, but almost every aspect of our lives—impacts of disruptions to the global supply chain causing significant inflation; accelerating the climate crisis that’s leading to rising seas and more severe weather patterns around the globe.” All complete horse manure of course, but that is what he expects these officers to believe. What do they think about their commander-in-chief when he stands before them and lies repeatedly to their face?

I suppose he thinks they will just accept his statement that the virus accelerated the climate crisis and led to rising seas. Well, many of them undoubtedly studied physics at the academy so perhaps they can explain to the more skeptical how that works. His statements about Putin are nonsense as well and completely illogical. Ukraine has been a part of Russia for well over a thousand years. Mongols fought ethnic Russians on the plains of Ukraine as did Napoleon Bonaparte and Adolph Hitler. Saint Vladimir the Great was born in Kiev in 958 and founded the Russian Orthodox church there, a church of which Vladimir Putin is a member. Why would he try to destroy his own cultural heritage?

This President isn’t even skilled enough to tell a believable lie. He lies so often, so repeatedly, in our faces that he must think we are all a bunch of idiots. Doesn’t he have speech writers to write and review his speeches? I guess they are liars as well or perhaps the writers and people who load the teleprompter have been educated in today’s progressive schools, so they don’t recognize the difference between a Democrat talking point and the truth. There’s one thing I’m certain of and that is that those young officers understand his lies and they are not filled with confidence in their commander-in-chief.

Let me return to China and Taiwan for a few minutes. Open support for Taiwan has never been U.S. strategy. From the time Nixon and Kissinger went to China in 1974 the policy has been one of strategic ambiguity. That means the U.S. never made a clear statement on whether it would come to the aid of Taiwan if China invaded. Many thought we would, but that decision was left open to avoid unnecessary provocation of China. The U.S. agreed to never refute the one China policy and for decades that has been our diplomatic and military policy.

The President’s destruction of strategic ambiguity in one sentence is more important than you might think. He committed the United States to a course potentially leading to nuclear war for no reason. He emboldened the Taiwanese government and infuriated the Chinese. There are reports coming out of China that the Chinese have ordered full mobilization in response. Taiwan is very important to China as a manner of pride, but also economically. Taiwan is by far the world leader in computer chip manufacture and the U.S. has offshored virtually all its chip making to Taiwan. The Chinese know that, and they know it would be devastating for the U.S. to lose that chip access.

Still, for decades the Chinese have left Taiwan alone, undoubtedly because for decades they did not have the military capability to take it. Now, they, at least, think they do have that capability. You hear a lot of noise about hypersonic missiles these days but what does hypersonic mean? That technology has only one purpose, to counter the U.S. Navy’s carrier battle groups. A Ford Class nuclear super carrier costs about 13 billion to build not including its 80 aircraft costing 50 to 250 million each. More importantly it is home to 5000 sailors and about 100 marines. I believe right now that it is a sitting duck for hypersonic missiles.

A hypersonic missile is launched, straight up into space where it acquires its programed target, then it accelerates to hypersonic speed which is about 4000 miles per hour or greater and heads straight down into its target. Doesn’t the Navy have anti-missile technology and aren’t carriers surrounded by a screening force? Yes, to both questions and suppose one missile could be intercepted, what about a hundred at once because that is how they would be launched. What I’m trying to say is that the U.S. needs time to counter that technology and that is where the speak softly until you actually have the big stick comes into play.

President Biden’s loose lips may very well sink ships unless cooler heads can prevail. Last year, a navy watchdog report demonstrated repeatedly that the U.S. Navy is unprepared for a war with China. The report cites tight resources for shipbuilding and maintenance, shortcomings in training, as well as low morale. Meanwhile, the Secretary of the Navy just announced that he thinks the greatest threat the Navy faces is climate change. His report, dubbed “Climate Action 2030” reports Navy plans to build climate resilience, reduce climate threat and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It said nothing about fighting and winning a war with the Chinese navy.

My guess is that the Chinese Navy has a completely different set of priorities. For one thing I will wager that every high-ranking Chinese Naval Officer along with the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party is sane. They may imprison millions, they may persecute religious minorities, they may harvest organs from political dissidents, but they are solidly sane. I will surmise that not a single one of them thinks that a man can get pregnant, or that a man can become a woman just by thinking about it. I don’t even think they give much thought or effort to recruiting more gay and transgendered people into the Chinese Navy.

All that would be great food for thought for our future naval officers I would think. Meanwhile back in the real world of ordinary people, here are some other thoughts he could have mentioned. Food prices were 9.4% higher in April 2022 than in April 2021—the largest annual increase in 41 years. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics grocery prices were up 10.8% for the year. The AAA reports that gas prices are setting all time highs across the nation just in time for the summer driving season. Because of the lack of fertilizer and increased diesel prices, farmers are telling us food prices are going to double by October.

Finally, folks, does anybody have an answer or does anybody even care that we are on an intentional track to national poverty? The President says we are in a transition to a new way of life that will be better. But Mr. President the people have no bread. During the transition, let them eat cake.

At least that’s the way I see it,

Until next time folks,

This is Darrell Castle,

Thanks for listening.