The lunacy of war

Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report. This is Friday, the 9^th day of February in the year of our Lord 2024. My topic, my beat today, is war, and specifically the lunacy and sheer madness of war. The Biden administration participates in foreign wars as an empire struggling desperately to maintain hegemony over the powers of the earth. War is the first thing that comes to mind as a tool to gain and maintain power.

War in the Middle East

Once again Washington finds itself at war in the Middle East. But perhaps it’s the same war just continuing after a brief rest. Is this simply a continuation of a civilizational war between Islam and the West? The words coming from the minds of Western leaders, especially American leaders, try very hard to make it clear that there is no such war. Middle Eastern leaders, on the other hand, may say the same. But I have no doubt that they see the struggle as a civilizational war and that Islam will ultimately prevail in that struggle. In Western Europe the migration figures tell us that Islam is well on its way to success in its civilizational war against the West.

None of this current Middle East morass makes any logical sense to me. But I suppose it makes sense to the military, industrial, security, complex. To paraphrase a rock music legend the late, great Buffalo Springfield, something’s happening here but what it is ain’t exactly clear. It’s not exactly clear but I have my theories. Junior Samples would say I don’t know much but I suspect a lot. I have a theory about the Middle East and the struggle for world dominance today.

A dark purpose for war

My theory is that war must be fought to keep the world in a state of chaos, the people in obedience through fear, and of course, to keep the profits flowing into the hands of those who profit from the manufacture, sale, and use of arms. There is always a justification and an excuse for the next war. The War in Ukraine is about to wind down into a kind of unspoken stalemate and eventually a negotiated agreement. And that is creating panic. Its true that the “Border Security Bill” contains $60 billion for Ukraine and only $20 billion for the U.S. border. But it doesn’t look like it will pass in that form.

When the war started, we were told by Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin that the best reason for the U.S. and its NATO allies to ship hundreds of billions in cash and arms to Ukraine was to weaken Russia. Yes, this is an opportunity, the Secretary said, to bleed Russia and degrade its ability to wage war and to compete internationally. Unfortunately for Washington the struggle has had the opposite result. It is the U.S. which has been bled and weakened by its decision to fund this war. Stockpiles of munitions have been depleted and the massive unpayable debt is even more massive. Russia’s economy and military are stronger than ever and now they are sharpened and hardened by war.

It never ends

I wonder if Vladimir Putin is smart enough to have anticipated the result of this conflict and planned it all in advance. No, I don’t think so because that’s impossible isn’t it?

The war in Ukraine is lost, or at least being lost so that’s a tragedy right? No, folks, that’s not how it works because the goal is not victory, but perpetual, never ending war. So, we simply pivot to an up-and-coming war in the Middle East to see if there is something we could do to make it worse, and of course there is. What starts out as a terrorist attack in Israel resulting in an invasion of Gaza by the Israeli military morphs into a full region wide, ever-expanding war.

The generous taxpayers

This war along with the war in Ukraine would not be possible without the generous efforts of the American taxpayer. When you look at your check stub next week and see the chunk taken by the government, you will know that you are doing your fair share to bring death and destruction to some part of the world completely meaningless to you. Perhaps I should stop beating this dead horse, but I want people to know that when they read that half a million are dead in Ukraine, they contributed their fair share to that result.

So, the Houthis, an Iranian proxy group we are told, starts attacking shipping in the narrow straits leading into the Red Sea and the Suez Canal as a contribution to the war in Gaza. That is one of the most important shipping lanes in the world so the world must keep it open. Egypt, which operates the canal, is reportedly losing millions of vitally important dollars every day from shipping which now takes the 4000-mile journey around Africa to get to Europe. Egypt profits from operation of the canal. And Europe is the destination of the vast majority of ships being denied use of the canal.

Keeping the shipping lanes open

Why then, can’t European and Egyptian navies keep the shipping lanes open? Why does it fall to the U.S. Navy to do so? Because any action taken by the U.S. is a magnet attracting an escalation of violence. In this case the U.S. maintains a remote base in Jordan near the Syrian border. That base was attacked by drone aircraft from somewhere killing three U.S. soldiers and wounding about 30 others. Biden was slow and deliberate in his decision of what to do but he finally decided that he would order air strikes against Iranian targets in Syria. Over 125 precision missiles along with tons of bombs hit targets inside Syria, but no targets in Iran proper. How does the U.S. know those drones were Iranian? Well, don’t ask because it just knows.

The result was a massive U.S. strike against 85 targets in Syria supposedly containing Iranian forces or those who support them. I read where one retired U.S. general said that we punched 85 useless holes in an already useless desert. The Iranians said they had nothing to do with those drone attacks. But U.S. airstrikes did kill about 40 people on the ground mostly civilians.

Exposure invites attack

There is a simple fact that military planners understand, but politicians and media personalities don’t seem to. When you put American troops or American assets out there in remote bases in harms way then attack the local enemy those forces will be attacked. Those attacks are called war, which is politically out of favor to admit now, at least in that name. But that’s what it is.

Primitive tribes have proven to be pretty effective at fighting the high-tech U.S. military. The Afghans, whether Taliban or Mujahideen, have had more than two thousand years to perfect their craft. The tactic is simple, i.e.:

• Just hold on for as long as it takes,
• Take as many casualties as necessary,
• Inflict as many casualties as possible, and
• Bleed your high-tech enemy until his people start wondering and perhaps voting in a new set of brave arm-chair warriors.

That tactic does require outside assistance of course, and there always seems to be plenty of groups who hate the U.S. enough to supply the weapons necessary to kill the young men and now young women of America when they are so cavalierly sent into harm’s way by politicians indifferent to their suffering.

Alexander the Great learned that lesson of war

The tactic I just mentioned was used in Afghanistan going back to the time of Alexander the Great which was 325 years before Jesus was on the earth, all the way through today. The American taxpayers supplied the Afghan tribes with weapons to fight the Russians and they eventually drove the Russians out. But the U.S. quickly decided to take their place just as they took the place of the French when they were driven from Indochina, now Vietnam. The weapons delivered to Chang Kai Shek to help him fight the Communists of Mao were then used against American troops in Vietnam, just as the weapons delivered to the Mujahideen in Afghanistan were later used against U.S. troops fighting the Taliban.

Fast forward to today and you will see that weapons abandoned in Afghanistan by President Biden were and still are being used by Russians in Ukraine, and by terrorists around the world.

Weapons delivered to Ukraine with no accounting of cost or where they went or what happened are now appearing in the hands of Hamas in its war with Israel. Yes, it seems that the U.S. has a very healthy and robust arms industry.

Hypocritical complaints

That’s why when I hear the hand wringing in Washington about deaths of women and children and civilian deaths anywhere in the world, the hypocrisy makes me a little nauseated. A few weeks ago, when the Israeli Air Force hit a refugee settlement in Gaza with two 1000-pound bombs which killed about 150 civilians most of them women and children the bombs had our names on them. Made in U.S.A. means your name and my name if, like me, you vote and pay taxes. The Israelis did respond to the criticism by saying that they had hard evidence that a Hamas leader was in the camp and so the attack was necessary. My point is that it would not be possible without American assistance.

Next week the U.S. Congress, that is the House of Representatives because that is constitutionally where spending bills originate, will vote on an aid package to Israel of $14.3 billion. That is of course, exclusive of the $3 billion given to Israel each year as a form of welfare sent abroad. I vote no to this bill not because I have anything against Israel, but for reasons I will explain. The first reason is that I am opposed to foreign aid in general except in the most dire circumstances. This doesn’t appear to be one of those.

Without the arms, would Israel deal?

The second reason, we have already discussed. That is: without our help the Israelis would have to make some kind of deal thus saving lives and money. Third, the U.S. already has massive unpayable debt which is killing growth. And growth is one of only a handful of ways to deal with the debt before interest exceeds income. Further, Israel has a lower debt-to-GDP ratio than the U.S. The bill being voted on has no offsets. So the entire amount goes directly on the debt column and interest must be paid on it forever. Granted, most of the money goes straight into the hands of the military, industrial, security, intelligence complex to increase their stock prices. But I vote no on this spending bill.

Oh yes, I know that I don’t really have a vote because I’m just a taxpayer. I suppose the vote I will cast against my congressman who votes in favor is my vote.

I don’t want to be called an antisemite because I oppose foreign aid, I really don’t. I’m not a sensitive sort who can’t stand criticism. I just don’t want to be accused of bad things of which I am not guilty. Perhaps I could use my Jewish wife of 46 years as a character reference.

Which is more important?

I don’t know how I will explain my position on the U.S. border except to say that its security is more important to me than the borders of Israel and Ukraine. It seems, however, that American leadership will defend foreign borders with our lives and our children’s’ lives. But U.S. borders they have no regard for.

Unintended consequence of continued war

In conclusion folks, the war in Ukraine has given Russia and Mr. Putin exactly what he wanted and what he vowed to obtain when he assumed Russian leadership. He wanted to make Russia a great power again, preferably through economic cooperation and alliances and not through conquest. The U.S. policy of trying to control the world through sanctions has given countries the opportunity to band together to avoid sanctions and form powerful alliances. Many of these nations have natural resources as the basis of their economies and that provides trade outside sanctions. In short, in an effort to weaken and bleed Russia the Biden administration may have given Russia the opportunity to become a great power again.

Finally, folks, this seems like total madness because it is. There is now very clear evidence that power-mad lunatics run the United States of America. Saying that and knowing that to be true does not solve anything so what can we do? Perhaps one last ballot effort to rescue our country from the deep state. Then if we fail we echo the words of Thomas Paine in his 1776 pamphlet Common Sense,

For God’s Sake Let Us Come To a Final separation.

At least that’s the way I see it.

Until next time folks,

This is Darrell Castle.

From CastleReport.us; appears by permission – Ed.