Two Hundred Days of War
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Darrell Castle gives his thoughts on the Iran War and asks the question what has 200 days of war accomplished for the United States. He reminds us that yesterday, September 17th, was the 239th anniversary of the U.S. Constitution.
Transcription / Notes
TWO HUNDRED DAYS OF WAR
Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report. This is Friday the 18th day of September in the year of our Lord 2026. My beat is war once again as the United States of America passes two milestones this week. Yesterday the 17th was Constitution Day and this week the US passed 200 days in its war against Iran. So, our subject is what has been accomplished in those 200 days.
Yes, we are 200 days into the war against Iran and just on a brief inventory I will list a few of the things it has accomplished. It seems to me that war has torn the U.S. and much of the world apart in the last few days. Here’s an excellent quote from the London Times via Bill Bonner.
“The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq cost more than 7000 American lives, hundreds of thousands of civilian ones and trillions of dollars, turning that surplus into a debt of more than $40 trillion. Seeing the world’s sole superpower flounder for a decade against roadside bombs and soviet-era rifles wrecked American self-esteem and drained Washington’s international authority. But the deeper damage was to Americans’ faith in their government and in themselves.”
That is about as good a summation of what GWB called the war on terror as I could write myself. This reporter, Gerald Baker, is telling us that America has lost its way and we may never find the way again. The US has now spent more than two decades dealing out death and destruction across the world with very little if any to show for it. Now, we are in an even worse situation thanks to the unprovoked attack against Iran about 200 days ago.
That attack has in so many ways torn the world apart. Thanks to the empowerment of Iran which was once a backwater country with its own people, especially its women, on the verge of rebellion because of the regime’s harsh treatment, that backwater now controls the world’s economy at least the fuel portion of it. Fuel may not be everything in the economic world but everything depends on it.
When it comes to fuel the war seems to be going worse than ever and it has been a catastrophe for the world’s economy. Iran controls the Strait of Hormuz which it made no effort to control before it was attacked. The Houthis are gaining control of the Red Sea and the chokepoints leading to it. Iraqi militia, undoubtedly armed by Iran have devastated the Saudi oil production and shipment facilities to the point that fuel in Europe is drying up.
The Saudis built a pipeline from their oil facilities across to the Red Sea to avoid Iranian attacks on shipping in the Gulf but repeated drone attacks have destroyed the pipeline so the Saudis are unable to ship oil right now. There have been so many Iranian missile attacks on US. bases and all the oil producing nations that oil is becoming critically short worldwide. Here in the US, we have developed a system where we don’t stockpile anything as we used to. Instead trucks continually roll to grocery stores and if they miss one day there is no food. Diesel delivers all the stuff we consume and if you’ve driven anywhere lately you know the highways are full of trucks and they all run on diesel. Since the price of diesel is soaring, over $6 in my area, the price of food and everything else is soaring too.
The Iranians do not have the same system. They don’t have to take delivery to prevail, they just have to make sure no one else takes delivery. The fuel shortage is growing worse by the day here in America. The emergency petroleum reserve is at a critically low point and even Donald Trump is alarmed so apparently that is why he made the deal with Venezuela for their oil. Will it be too little too late, time will tell I guess.
It seems that petroleum is not the only thing in short supply. The Iranians are very clever people and they seem to have figured out that they can run us short of missiles as well as petroleum. The THAAD system, Terminal High Altitude Area Defense System is one of the nation’s most expensive defensive systems costing about $13 million per missile. Consider that it is tasked with shooting down missiles supplied to Iran by China probably in exchange for oil which they have in abundance.
If a swarm of missiles is fired at Israel THAAD will be highly effective against one, two, perhaps ten but at what cost. The system is not as effective against the hypersonic missiles the Iranians are currently using so perhaps tens of millions expended for each attack all back to US taxpayers. Military records show that 134 THAADs were fired in June of 2025 well before the current war even started. Now, apparently the supply is critically short and the maximum production capacity is about 8 missiles per month. It’s easy to see the problem. Even if THAAD is completely effective US production capacity cannot keep up.
If that were all it would be plenty but as usual it gets worse. According to anonymous, but trusted federal officials as reported by Tucker Carlson, the US has to replenish not only its own weapons expended but Israel’s too. Reportedly the Trump administration plans to send a total of 40,000 Mark 84 and BLU-117 bombs to the Israeli government in the coming months.
The records reveal that in World War ll all the allied nations combined from 1939 until 1945 dropped 3.4 million tons of bombs on their Axis enemies. The US didn’t even enter the war until late 1941. The bombs I just mentioned being provided to Israel, 40,000 of them each contain 2000 pounds of explosive force or one ton. That means 40,000 tons if the transfer is approved.
Some members of congress are starting to take notice however because Thomas Massie has introduced articles of impeachment against Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, and he promised to push it to a vote as one of his last acts before leaving office in November. Yes, Massie has represented Kentucky’s 4th district since 2012 but he was primaried out of congress this year and will be leaving in November. He has always been critical of the Iran war and of the US relationship with Israel and I suppose that was just too much for the proponents of the war to bear.
Coincidentally, yesterday, the 17th was Constitution Day which celebrates the 239th anniversary of the document that moved America from the status of a colony ruled by Britain to an independent, self-governing republic. Here are a few words from Massie’s articles of impeachment.
“It is appropriate on this day, the 239th anniversary of our Constitution, that Members of the House of Representatives can stand and vote to validate their constitutional oath and to impress upon the self-proclaimed Secretary of War that his days of waging preemptive, aggressive war are over. The current Secretary’s practice of extrajudicial killings, of playing policeman, prosecutor, judge, jury and executioner will be at an end, if the House votes to impeach.
Every American should understand the gravity of the conduct of Secretary Hegseth: Unilateral initiation and continuation of war, the taking of life without due process, the abandonment of protections for civilians, the suppression of free speech, the separation of powers and the constitutional authority of Congress”
The articles also include charges which I won’t quote but I will attempt to summarize as I am able. The United States conducted a preemptive attack on Iran at the request of Benjamin Netanyahu. Iran’s leader Ayatollah Ali Hosseini Khamenei and members of his family were killed. US and Israeli planes attacked a clearly marked school and killed at least 168 mostly schoolgirls. The school was attacked in three separate raids.
He followed illegal orders and continued to accelerate the attacks on Iran. Oil shipments have been cut off and gas prices are soaring. He ordered the deaths of individuals traveling by boat in the Caribbean, alleging they were drug smugglers, arrogating to himself a God-like power over life and death.
These are very serious charges and if proven justify impeachment but do they have to be proven. They don’t have to be proven to advance the process from the initial introduction to a full house vote but at some point if they are advanced they will have to be discussed and voted on.
Just the fact that Articles of Impeachment have been introduced proclaims to the world that at least one member of congress thinks the war and the way US war policy is being conducted is so objectionable it deserves impeachment. One result of this is that victory or a favorable conclusion to the war is now impossible. It is an act that any enemy would very much like to see because it says they are so divided there is no consensus and therefore they can’t prevail.
Finally, folks, these are some of the most embarrassing and frustrating moments that America has had to face in my lifetime. This war has revealed Israeli motives but what it has revealed about the US, its leadership makes no sense to me but I guess even the world’s only super power can get into a mess it can’t seem to get out of.
At least that’s the way I see it,
Until next time folks,
This is Darrell Castle,
Thanks for listening.
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