Castle Report

The Castle Report

• Eighty Years After World War Two
  Darrell Castle talks about the 80th anniversary of the end of World War Two. How have the allied leaders handled the inheritance of the victory they were given by the blood of their ancestors? Are they behaving like victors? Transcription / Notes EIGHTY YEARS AFTER WORLD WAR TWO Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report. This is Friday the 29th day of August in the year of our Lord 2025. This is Labor Day weekend and a 3-day vacation for most of us but the day after Labor Day is an anniversary to remember. It is the 80th anniversary of the end of World War Two. Where do we stand today with the inheritance that all those men gave us so many years ago. How have the allied leaders handled the victory they were given by the blood of their ancestors. I will look at some of the things that are happening in our world today to see if the allies have truly behaved like victors. Next Tuesday, the 2nd of September is the 80th anniversary of the signing of the Japanese surrender documents ending World War ll. The surrender was signed on the deck of the battleship USS Missouri while it was sitting at anchor in Tokyo Bay. The Americans had the people you would expect in attendance such as Chester Nimitz, the Commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, and General Douglas MacArthur Commander of the Southern Pacific Region, who accepted the surrender on behalf of the victorious allied nations. General MacArthur was appointed Proconsul of Japan which made him the virtual ruler of that nation on behalf of the occupying American forces. General MacArthur ruled with a compassionate, but firm hand and in a few short years the nation of Japan once a radioactive, burned our wasteland was a G-20 economy. The Japanese were resistant at first but with the encouragement of their emperor they started to buy into MacArthur’s program and they rebuilt their country as a model of American capitalism. There were many other people on board the Missouri that day including people honored because they were seriously wounded in the Pacific War but also ex-prisoners of the Japanese who survived years of harsh treatment. When I was a child one of our neighbors was boy scour leader for my scout group. He had served on the Missouri and was pretty good at crafts so he built a scale model of the ship about 3 feet long and kept it in a separate room of his house. He had tremendous pride in his service and in being present for history. There are very few of the veterans of that war still living and soon there will be none so every chance we get to honor them should be taken. August 14th the last fighter ace of the war died at the age of 103. His name was Thomas McPherson and he was the pilot of an F6F Hellcat fighter flying off the carrier USS Essex. In case you don’t know a fighter ace is someone who shoots down five enemy planes in aerial combat. When the war was over Tom went back home to Nebraska and became a mail carrier where he spent his working life. He was a boy scout leader and worked in his church just living a quiet and peaceful life of service. Many gallant aces, many empty places as the pilots would say at dinner. There were many aces, but none still alive from WWll. We still have aces from Korea and Vietnam of course although they are going quickly as well. So, how the world has changed in 80 years. The U.S. dropped two atomic bombs thus ending the war but today 9 nations are believed to have nuclear weapons with about 12000 warheads in existence. Sometimes when I look at it all and I see where we are today I have to wonder who won the war. There are so many places today where the world seems to have turned upside down. Old friends are now bitter enemies and vice versa. China and Russia, our friends during the war but now enemies. Dr. Ron Paul, who just celebrated his 90th birthday a few days ago talked about America first in one of his Liberty Reports. He pointed out that the President promised us that he would put A...
• 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 found...