Darrell Castle talks about examples of madness occurring in America and around the world that he never thought he would live to see.

Transcription / Notes

WORLD GONE MAD

Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report. This is the 8th day of December in the year of our Lord 2023. I will be talking about madness occurring in America and around the world that I never thought I would live to see. The continuation and funding of pointless wars by the United States around the world along with continuing and intensifying attacks on Jews in America and around the Western world are just two of the many examples of madness.

Before I start with the madness Report, I remind you that yesterday, December 7th was the 82nd anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor or the day of infamy as FDR put it. Today is the beginning of Hanukkah for our Jewish friends as they suffer the brunt of much of the madness that I will be talking about. Tomorrow December 9th is my dear wife’s birthday so happy birthday Joan. In a couple of weeks, we will celebrate our 46th anniversary, and that is no small achievement today.

War is my subject and my beat today, and the war in Gaza seems to have taken the war in Ukraine off the front pages at least for a while, but that doesn’t mean the U.S. has stopped fighting Russia. The German Corporation, Rheinmetall, has been given a large contract by some unnamed NATO country that has been a large financial supporter of the Ukraine war effort. Well, I scratch my head and I wonder which country that could be. Who could afford to give a German Company 142 million Euros to build 155MM howitzer shells for Ukraine. How many rounds of 155 shells, tens of thousands is all they will say.

The shells from Rheinmetall are not expected to be ready until 2025 so a long war perhaps. There is an existing Rheinmetall order from October 2023 of 150,000 rounds of 155 which will be delivered sooner. Rheinmetall is a historic German company that supplied Keyser Wilhelm with ammunition in World War l, and it supplied ammunition, tracked vehicles, and other armored vehicles to Hitler in World War ll. That’s a lot of madness, I know folks, but stay with me because it gets worse.

The U.S. has more for the arms industry than just German companies because it has given $522 million in contracts to U.S. arms companies to produce 155 howitzer shells. Most of the money will go to Northrop Grumman and Global Military Products, Inc. but there is enough to spread among various ammunition plants around the country. The estimate is about 50,000 rounds per month next year accelerating to 85,000 per month by 2028. Will we really need 85,000 155MM howitzer rounds per month in 2028? I guess so folks, and I suppose we are expected to accept it as all part of the new madness in which we live. Not to put too fine a point on it but that is approximately 1,800,000 rounds before the big numbers kick in 2028, and not counting Rheinmetall’s contribution.

Both sides in Ukraine continue to respond to tactical changes dictated by new weapons and tactics supplied to Ukrainian forces by the U.S. In other words, the supplies make the conflict worse because they must and will be countered. For example, reports by the ISW, or the Institute for the Study of War, indicate that the Ukrainian air defense system especially along the border with Russia is becoming more and more effective against Russian aircraft. To counter that the Russians have gone to more frequent use of long-range glide bombs and cruise missiles as well as swarms of what are being called suicide or kamikaze drones.

My point is that both sides seem to be settling in for a long war. Putin just directed that the Russian military be increased in personnel by 170,000. In its efforts to “weaken Russia” as Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin put it, Russia has been made much stronger. This madness is great news for arms makers here and around the world,