Guantanamo's Wreckage

I have recently become involved in a BBC effort that solicits commentary and analysis of BBC-produced programs.  It gave me the opportunity to listen to this documentary broadcast on the Guantanamo Bay prison - but  with the emphasis on prisoners who have been released.

It is a program that does not spoon-feed the listener the viewpoint they are supposed to be adopting like so many US "cable news" programs these days.  You actually need to think here - the story is told through the experiences of real people who were incarcerated at Guantanamo.  The story eventually tells itself very well, and it is not a pretty one for US citizens who in a very real way are responsible for the unjust, inhuman, and quite frankly invented reasons for keeping some of these people there at all.

Is It a Bird, a Plane? (Well, It's Supposed to Be!)

Comes the totally unsurprising word now that the F-35 is still broken (and still several times over budget).

The Marines have just grounded their whole fleet (for the tiny little reason that the engines have been bursting into flame) but if memory serves the Marines were the ones who got their first F-35s lacking some parts, like guns!  (Update -- the whole US fleet of F-35s has now been grounded).

If the Marines ever feel safe enough to actually fly all the way across the Atlantic in one of these things (where is Charles Lindbergh when you need him?), they now know they have a backup weapon - drop a flaming engine on the enemy!  Oh, wait...there is only one engine....scratch that idea.  Besides, the pilots apparently can't see well enough to aim anything at anyone anyway!