Strategic Blunders

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Darrell Castle talks about strategic blunders made by the United States, and followed by the West in general, that have paved the road to war and to a possible radioactive future.

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STRATEGIC BLUNDERS

Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report. This is Friday, the 15^th day of July in the year of our Lord 2022, and I will be talking about strategic blunders made by the United States and followed by the West in general, that have paved the road to war and to a possible radioactive future. I hope these things are blunders because if they were done with the end result in mind then that would indeed be terrifying, and it would mean that the destruction is part of an overall plan of world domination.

Does it make any sense to destroy your own ability to produce energy thus making your country dependent on others and then sanction the others? It sounds like madness but that is exactly what the U.S. has done. Joe Biden cancelled the Keystone Pipeline on his first day in office as well as making it very difficult to produce energy from oil by drilling for it. The U.S. was enjoying an unprecedented energy boom and complete energy Independence with Donald Trump as president but with Biden all that has been reversed.

The U.S. went from energy independence and a net exporter to begging ideological enemies for relief from skyrocketing costs. The administration’s belligerence toward Russia and its unwillingness to even discuss Russia’s security concerns has led to a war of attrition in Ukraine and now Russia appears to be winning. When is the last time Russia lost a grinding war of attrition? It has been a very long time folks. Now, the Russians laugh openly at the American sanctions which have made Russia much richer and the U.S. much poorer.

Europe decided to unite with Russia as a partner regarding European energy needs to the extent that Europe became completely dependent on Russian energy. Europe then went along with American sanctions against Russia and joined the U.S. in pouring money and weapons into Ukraine. That seems like economic suicide, but I suppose it was only a strategic blunder. It has been an abject failure since it has made Russia stronger and severely damaged the economies of the U.S. and much of Europe.

Germany, once the manufacturing heart of Europe, suffered through a billion-dollar trade deficit last quarter. Germany now is a net importer and thanks to the energy policies of Angela Merkel is facing a long difficult winter in the cold and dark. The green energy policies of Ms. Merkel have been a disaster for Germany and the Germans have learned the hard way that energy once lost, is very hard to regain. It is especially difficult to achieve through wind and solar when you have nothing else. France has held up a little better since, unlike Germany, it did not close down its nuclear plants.

The green revolution is manifesting itself in ways those who started it failed to consider. The result of all the paranoia over climate change and the environment has been the beginning of starvation for much of the world. In Sri Lanka, for example, there is no food and no fuel to transport it if there was food. Sri Lanka was once food independent but now is totally dependent on food imports which is a recipe for catastrophe. The result was the people storming government buildings and forcing the resignation of both the President and Prime Minister. How long before the mobs of people demand more than resignations.

Across Europe people are rising up in protest against policies that deprive them of their ability to grow food. What kind of politician tells his nations farmers to shut down their farms to prevent climate change, but that is exactly what the government in Holland did? The farmers did not go quietly and thousands of them are on their tractors on the road to Brussels. Farmers in many other European countries have followed suit. They are trying to save their livelihoods and the lives of the European people.

Speaking of energy President Biden not only refuses to allow the United States to produce its own energy he has been depleting the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) by a million barrels per day. That oil belongs to the people of the United States and is there to prevent a dire emergency in time of war or other catastrophe. He has been releasing it apparently to bolster Democrat chances in the mid term elections by getting a temporary price reduction at the gas pumps. He has also sold a good deal of it to Europe to replace the Russian oil he sanctioned and to keep the Europeans from leaving the fold and making friends with Russia. Disturbingly, according to reports from Fox News and others, Tucker Carlson in particular, up to 15% of it has gone to Communist China.

The Russians, despite the war in Ukraine, are enjoying a very profitable year thanks to the soaring price of oil and gas. Russia sells enough oil and gas to China and India to more than finance its war. The world is arming up in response, I suppose to prepare for the inevitable. The U.S. and Europe planning to send 300,000 troops to Eastern Europe. The tiny nation of Latvia is enacting compulsory military service. Lithuania, despite calls to back off, has extended its blockade of Russian products to Kaliningrad to many other products.

 In response Putin extended his offer of Russian citizenship to all of Ukraine, not just the Russian speaking Eastern Provinces. This is a classic Russian Psyops maneuver and what it says to the Ukrainian people is why sit and wait for the inevitable. Russia is going to win this war; you know it and I know it so why not join us. We have no problem with you the only problems are with your government and its alliance with the West.

The U.S. announced another $400 million to Ukraine including the Himars artillery system. That is the high mobility artillery rocket system which is very complicated and difficult to operate without extensive training or American operators on the ground. The U.S. grows more deeply involved in the Ukraine daily but I argue that restraint is now called for. Despite its belligerence the U.S. military is growing critically short of personnel to fill the ranks. The army has achieved only 40% of its goals for this fiscal year with only 3 months to go. The army said it might have to consider a reduction in readiness forces.

According to Army Chief of Staff General James McConville, only 23% of Americans ages 17 to 24 are eligible to serve without a waiver. This is due to obesity, drug use, or criminal record. Of the 23% eligible only 9% have any interest in serving. The potential recruits expressed fear that they would experience emotional or physical harm if they joined. This is even with the lower standards such as no high school diploma and reduced physical fitness requirements. My question is that if the standards don’t matter then why have them in the first place.

Just to show you the total irrationality of the leadership of this country the National Guard just discharged 62.000 people because they refused the COVID vaccine. The U.S. military is hurting around the world as numbers are declining and commitments are increasing. The Navy personnel are instructed to never use politically incorrect pronouns like he or she and to believe that men can get pregnant, and that gender is simply a state of mind, but apparently very little in war fighting and ship handling. The other day the U.S. strike carrier, The Harry Truman, operating in the Mediterranean, had an F-18 Super Hornet, one of the world’s most advanced fighter jets blow over the side in a storm.

That jet cost 67,4 million to build and now it is at the bottom of the Med. The Navy is debating whether to try a salvage operation to keep an enemy nation from gaining access to it. Is there any accountability in the Navy anymore? Has the captain of the Truman been relieved? If that jet had been lost in combat or lost in flight due to mechanical failure, then OK but blown over the side. In all my years of sailing with the Marines on Navy ships in the Med and the Far East, I never saw anything like that happen. I suppose the captain of the Truman uses all the correct pronouns at least.

China and Russia are both reportedly in possession of hyper sonic missile systems. China especially seems to have perfected the system which sends missiles into a suborbital pattern in space to loiter until a target such as a U.S. carrier, a U.S. base or a U.S. city is assigned and then it attacks at hypersonic speed. This is a game changing weapon system for which the U.S. has no answer. The U.S. tested a hypersonic missile recently, but it failed and apparently the U.S. is years behind China in this technology. Hypersonic technology is a capability gap that is very dangerous and makes those Carriers very vulnerable.

 Smarter minds should prevail and some of the inflammatory rhetoric should be reconsidered until the U.S. can come up to speed on this system. While the hypersonic test failed the U.S. destroyer Zumwalt with its new all clad design and its guided artillery rounds at a cost of $750,000 per round also failed and must be stripped and completely redesigned. Perhaps directed energy weapons the U.S. is rumored to have could be a hypersonic defense but its unknown whether the U.S. actually has a functional directed energy weapon system.

The other day I was listening to Max Morton on his site Forward Observor.com and Max gave an illustration of where the U.S. stands right now. He said the U.S. is like the high school quarterback from 20 years ago who was the hottest thing in high school. He dated the head cheerleader, and all the other girls were jealous of her. Now 20 years later he still thinks he is the hottest thing around, but he has a pot belly, and he is starting to lose his hair.

There are extremely ominous signs and signals coming from China right now but the time I have left today will only allow a thumbnail look. The assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was a terrible blow for the containment of Chinese expansion across the region. Abe was a friend of the United States and was expected to be reelected Prime Minister. He was solidly in favor of supporting Taiwan against China because he knew that Taiwan would be just the first step toward Chinese dominance both land and maritime. Would the U.S. go to war over Taiwan? Probably not, but over Japan it would, and that country is right in the middle of the Chinese expansion defense and is rearming at a fast rate.

The Chinese foreign minister recently spoke to his counterparts in many of the Asian nations and he warned them not to become chess pieces in the Americans’ game. He said that Asia belongs to the Asians. That’s all well and good but what he really meant was don’t ally with the Americans while we are stealing your territory and debt colonizing your economies. China is lining up friends who are willing to oppose the U.S. so people wonder, is the U.S. still the strong horse in the Pacific Region? Many apparently think not. Many read the New York Times as we do, and they see where the Times said the American President looks old, shuffles when he walks, aides are afraid he will trip, he almost always gaffes up anything he says. They watch his videos where he claps at inappropriate times, slurs his words etc. and to them he is the United States.

In conclusion the United States is badly in need of competent leadership. The currant leadership from top to bottom needs to be removed and replaced. The sanctions have become a sick joke and the joke is on us. The world is ignoring them, even friends like India. The world is getting rich at the expense of the U.S. and its European allies who get poorer each day. To align with the U.S. today a nation must pledge its own ruin and starvation through what is known as ESG or Environmental Social and Governance. You see folks, this movement to go green covers so much more than the environment. A nation has to literally destroy its ability to feed its people to become a U.S. ally, but China has no such requirement.

Finally, Folks, this is madness and I know you can see that. Somebody up there and most likely a lot of somebodies must be raving lunatics. Little by little the ruling elite are revealing to the rest of us just how wicked they really are, and now they have us on the path to a radioactive future. Maybe its all just part of the plan.

At least that’s the way I see it,

Until next time folks,

This is Darrell Castle,

Thanks for listening.