Ukraine is a Goldmine

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Darrell Castle talks about the words of U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican from the state of South Carolina, speaking on Face the Nation on CBS last Sunday. He explained why we can’t afford to allow Russia to prevail in Ukraine.

Transcription / Notes

UKRAINE IS A GOLDMINE

Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report. This is Friday the 14^th day of June in the year of our Lord 2024. I will be talking about the words of U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican from the state of South Carolina, speaking on Face the Nation on CBS last Sunday. He said that we can’t afford to allow Russia to prevail in Ukraine because then Russia would have access to Ukraine’s vast mineral wealth and it would share it with China, so it would be better if it were available only to the U.S. and its allies.

I am grateful to the senator for finally saying out loud and in public for the whole world to see and hear the reason the United States is fueling the war in Ukraine and seems to be trying to constantly make it worse. He emphasized the immense value of Ukraine’s critical mineral resources, estimated to be worth between $10 to $12 trillion, and the strategic importance of these assets for the U.S. and the Western World. He also underscored the necessity of supporting Ukraine to ensure those resources do not fall into the hands of Russia and China.

So, my thanks to the senator for confirming that the politicians, bureaucrats, and billionaires who run the U.S. government are not sacrificing hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian and Russian lives along with the infrastructure of an entire nation, as well as more than $120 billion of U.S. debt for no good reason. The sacrifice is not for such nebulous old-fashioned concepts as freedom and democracy, and it is not for the self determination of the Ukrainian people.

Most importantly, it is not for the peace and security of Europe because Russia seeks to rebuild the Soviet Union and that would obviously threaten a great deal of Europe. It is not because Russia wants to recapture the Baltics first, then move on to Poland, Romania, and so on and so forth. No, it’s not any of those things which are now revealed to be lies and more lies as I have been saying since the U.S. inspired coup in 2014. It is money, just filthy lucre and it always has been money. Quoting the senator:

 “They’re sitting on $10 to $12 trillion of critical minerals in Ukraine. They could be the richest country in all of Europe. I don’t want to give that money and those assets to Putin to share with China. If we help Ukraine now, they can become the best business partner we ever dreamed of. That $10 to $12 trillion of critical mineral assets could be used by Ukraine and the West, not given to Putin and China. This is a very big deal how Ukraine ends. Let’s help them win a war we can’t afford to lose. Let’s find a solution to this war. But they’re sitting on a gold mine. To give Putin $10 to $12 trillion of critical minerals he will share with China is ridiculous.”

That performance of Senator Graham’s was quite an eye opener but I promised myself I would not overreact. I will not allow my base instinct to control my thoughts about the senator’s explanation of the war, therefore, I will not call the senator a corrupt war mongering hypocritical insane lunatic. The mask of morality with which U.S. politicians have always covered their actions has now been removed. The posturing about whether Russia has designs on the Baltics and the rest of Europe is just so much BS. So, thank you Senator for telling us the truth, finally.

Do you think the senator told the nation the truth because he thought we would find his reasoning appealing or because he thinks we are just too stupid to understand him. I wonder if he thinks the average American would be more than willing to push the world to the brink of nuclear war to help the U.S. corporate bottom line. In addition to being vile, disgusting, and morally repugnant, it is completely flawed reasoning. It makes no sense at all unless you own or at least are heavily invested in the resource companies that will benefit from all the death, destruction, chaos, and risk.

If the U.S. is simply making an investment that’s one thing, but it sounds a lot like gambling with life and death for millions to me. The secretary of defense told us early in this poker game that our purpose in funding it and thus making it a lot worse was to weaken Russia, to bleed Russia, and thus degrade the Russian ability to make war. I can now safely assume that the reasoning is far simpler than it seemed to me at first. If Russia is bled dry as the secretary put it, then Russia would be less capable of resisting U.S. efforts to steal or purchase through munitions and warfare, the Ukrainian natural resources.

The senator is a longtime hawk, especially when it comes to Russia, but a hawk toward war in general. I always thought it was because he is a raving, power mad lunatic, but now I see that much of it is cold and rational. He referred to Vladimir Putin as a megalomaniac who is attempting to re-create the Russian empire by force of arms. That is straight out of Saul Alinsky who used to counsel his young radicals like Hillery Clinton in his book, Rules for Radicals, where he said accuse your enemy of what you are doing. So, I guess when the senator says this is a war we can’t afford to lose, he means that literally.

He also said that the U.S. should speed up efforts to steal $300 billion of Russian sovereign assets and he made a demand that Russia be designated a state sponsor of terrorism under U.S. law. I have to ask whether Russia is the terrorist since the real goal of the war has been so forthrightly revealed by the senator.

By a strange coincidence, one day prior to senator Graham’s remarks, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban argued that the West wants Kiev to win the conflict with Russia so that it can control Ukraine’s wealth. Orban was interviewed by Hir TV about the war and he accused the U.S. and its allies of seeing Ukraine as a potentially huge source of revenue which they will be able to control, provided Russia is defeated. He also noted that the conflict is a major boost for Western arms suppliers, creditors, and speculators, noting that this is the reason the war has dragged on for so long.

I have spoken well of Mr. Orbin before because I have always found him to be honest, forthright, with a love of his country and a desire to do his best for the Hungarian people. Those are honorable traits and I can think of no other Western leader who has them. Western leaders normally want the cloak of morality to cover their wars and their violations of human rights and their murders, but when the cloak is lifted the insides are pretty ugly to look at.

Russia has stated over and over throughout this conflict that its goals are to protect the largely Russian-speaking population of Donbass against persecution by Kiev, and to ensure Russia’s own security in light of NATO expansion toward its borders. Russia has never expressed an intention to take over Ukraine let alone Europe and that includes Ukraine’s natural resources. These goals are apparently the ambition of the United States and its allies, at least according to Senator Lindsey Graham.

Graham has been the escalator in chief especially during all of 2023 and so far in 2024. His constant demands for escalation, his constant complaining that weapons shipments are not enough along with his demands that more and more sophisticated weapons should be sent have kept this conflict going and have made it much worse. He certainly bears a great deal of responsibility for bringing the world to the brink although the bottom line is still Joe Biden. The president signs off on everything, or else it does not go. If Biden doesn’t sign the order, then the weapons don’t go and if Biden doesn’t give Zelensky permission to attack inside Russia with U.S. weapons it would not happen, therefore the escalation is American.

Long range precision guided missiles being sent deep into Russia to attack military targets but most importantly to attack Russian early warning radar systems are especially troubling. They are troubling to me because if I were Vladimir Putin, I would not put up with it and I wonder how much longer he will. The missiles must have targeting systems linked to satellites and maintained by people in NATO countries on the ground. The origins of the missiles, their supply chains and maintenance facilities are legitimate military targets and that would mean Russia attacking NATO countries thus triggering a probable article 5 NATO response.

I wonder if there is anyone left in the U.S. government who has any sense at all. The steady path toward World War III continues and no one will vary from it. Russia meets each escalation with its own escalation. Each U.S. escalation has been a tactical failure so far but that hasn’t stopped the flow of new weapons and tactics. If there are any rational leaders left in the West, when do they consider the possibility that the war is lost, deescalate, and seek a treaty to end it. That might be a monetary loss for senator Graham though, so I won’t count on it but still, I can’t help but wonder.

In the latest escalation the U.S. and its NATO allies have green-lighted missile attacks deep inside Russia using U.S.-made ATACMS ballistic missiles with a range of about 190 miles. The attacks have hit both civilian and military targets such as the Russian nuclear missile warning system. These attacks are prompting severe Russian responses including the destruction of the entire Ukrainian power grid. Using U.S. supplied drones and missiles to attack the Russian early warning system for incoming nuclear armed missiles is about as provocative as it gets without an actual nuclear attack.

Both the U.S. and Russia adhere to a nuclear philosophy that is called launch on warning. That means that as soon as an incoming nuclear missile is detected you launch and you don’t wait for them to hit their targets. That’s why attacking the early warning system is such an eye opener and has never been done by either side. Ukraine doesn’t have nuclear missiles so why would it have any reason to attack a nuclear missile early warning system. Ukraine launched these missiles into Russia, but it could not have done so without U.S. and NATO supply and most importantly U.S. satellite targeting information.

What would the U.S. do if Mexico launched missiles supplied by Russia with targeting data also supplied by Russia, to attack U.S. early warning system radars. Hitting a radar system that is a part of nuclear defense leaves a gap in that link, that system. The launch on warning is then even more on a hair trigger and even more sensitive to detection and launch. Therefore, the world resides on a hair trigger and remains just one split second decision or mistake from disaster. Is the natural resources wealth of Ukraine worth nuclear war. Apparently, some lunatics in Washington think so but they never bother to ask us normal people if we think it is.

The Russian reluctance and restraint, rather than a compliment, has become a hinderance to peace because it creates the belief that because they haven’t attacked NATO, they never will. That reaction is more evidence to compliment Tucker Carlson’s interview with Putin in which Putin appeared rational and not a bloodthirsty lunatic. He doesn’t appear to want war with the U.S. and NATO but I wonder how much longer he will permit his country to be attacked without consequences. The other day Russian deputy chairman of the Security Council. Dmitry Medvedev told the world that Russia knows where the attacks are coming from.

“I would like to warn American leaders against miscalculations that could have fatal consequences. For unknown reasons, they underestimate the seriousness of the rebuff they may receive.”

Mr. Medvedev is wrong about one thing though. The reasons are not unknown. It is because the West is led by illegitimate, incompetent, and reckless people who don’t seem to know or care what nuclear war is and they are driven primarily by money and power.  They assume they can play with fire and not be burned.

Finally, folks, it seems to me that this is an illegitimate criminal system that seeks to benefit from cannibalizing other countries by way of mass death and destruction all the while cloaking itself in a flag of false morality. How can we support that?

At least that’s the way I see it,

Until next time folks,

This is Darrell Castle,

Thanks for listening.