Darrell talks about several things that taken together, in his opinion, represent an attempt by President Trump to reset the global order.

Transcription / Notes

RESETTING THE GLOBAL ORDER

Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report. This is Friday the 14th day of March in the year of our Lord 2025. I will be talking about several things that taken together, in my opinion, represent an attempt by President Trump to reset the global order. Some of those things include a proposal for a ceasefire in Ukraine, along with the US and Europe’s special relationship and the attitude of the US toward Russia.

US national security advisor Mike Waltz and Secretary of State Marco Rubio went to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia for talks with Ukrainian officials about a proposal for ending the Ukraine/Russia war. It’s a very difficult thing to end a war unless you are able to raise your flag over the enemy capitol. Getting two warring sides to just stop fighting and stand in place is very difficult because one side or the other always has the advantage or momentum and wants to keep it.

This particular peace conference was apparently brokered by the Saudis who had several representatives in attendance. One important party missing from the meeting was Russia which will obviously have to be onboard if the ceasefire has any chance of working.

Ukraine agreed to the discussions and quickly agreed to the deal when Zelensky’s visit to the oval office didn’t go so well and Trump cut off aid and Intelligence information to Ukraine. Without that intelligence including targeting information, Ukraine could not prosecute the war so Zelensky swallowed his pride and accepted the deal. Now, it has to go to Russia for approval and that might be difficult because Russia seems to think it has the advantage. Several Russian missile attacks against Ukraine have occurred since the deal was made but that is probably just trying to appear dominant before Putin talks to Trump or whoever it turns out to be.

This ceasefire proposal is set to last for 30 days as a way to start negotiations to end the war. Again, it’s difficult because both sides think they have won or at least should win and winners expect to dictate terms not to negotiate. Trump’s attitude has been to let Zelensky know that the US billions were going to stop flowing and it is in his best interest to make the best deal possible. That deal will not include NATO membership or a US guarantee of security for Ukraine, hopefully. Why couldn’t Europe just admit Ukraine to NATO on its own? No, it can’t because admitting new members has to be unanimous.

Rubio was quoted as saying that Ukraine has to be ready to do difficult things and Russia would also have to make difficult decisions. When asked what difficult decisions he said that both sides would have to conclude that the conflict could not be resolved by military means. Rubio said that the President wants the war to end and Ukraine has accepted that premise and we hope the Russians will accept it as well. My interpretation of that diplomat speak is that Ukraine will have to permanently concede the eastern Russian speaking provinces along with Crimea to Russia. Who will maintain this proposed ceasefire line, I’m not sure but I hope it’s not the USA just as it does in Korea. No, that would be very unacceptable and I hope that Trump would not go along.

Yesterday, in advance of any US—Russia meeting Putin rejected the ceasefire as proposed without “substantial changes.” He said he wanted the root cause of the conflict eliminated but he did not say what he thinks the root cause is. He wants guarantees that the Ukrainians will not mobilize, train soldiers or receive weapons during the ceasefire. These proposals seem reasonable assuming that Putin would also agree to abide by them although his announcement did not say that he would. He made the announcement just as the American envoy, Steve Witkoff was arriving in Moscow so perhaps ...