Maybe Russert has temporarily found his backbone

Tim Russert must have been getting hell from real journalists for his role as a PR spokesman, apologist and softball tosser for this administration and the right during these past -- oh I don't know, five plus years?

He recently had the authors of Cobra II, who have criticized this admin's handling of the war and today Timmy boy finally had Gen. Anthony Zinni on Meet the Press -- Zinni is the retired Marine Corps General who was the Central Command (CentCom) Chief. General Zinni explained that loyalty is secondary and inconsequential to performance, results, integrity, ethics, honesty and actual outcomes. And that the true, highest purpose of the military is to prevent war and ensure peace.

Now there's a concept. He also had the guts to call for Rumsfeld's resignation (or rather, firing). He pointed out that not one asshole has been held accountable for ANY of the fiascos they have flubbed during the past five and a half years.

General Zinni pretty much accused everyone around big bad Shrub of lying about WMD, cherry picking intelligence and being determined to go to war (even prior to 9-11). Too bad he let Shrub off the hook, but I suppose he's being intellectually honest in that he doesn't know for sure about the Prez, but he does know about the intelligence and the others who are the loyal footservants to the Imperial prince (aka President Bush).

Zinni seems to be a leader in the tradition of Eisenhower and Grant; someone who thinks of the actual well-being of the citizens FIRST, believes in the highest ideals of democracy and is not one who has to prove his machismo by spilling and wasting the blood of soldiers and innocent citizens in order to show who's boss man of the world. (and let's not even talk about the multi-billions of dollars which could have been used to improve so many lives -- health, jobs, housing -- in this country and many others around the world! This administration has perpetrated immoral acts on this country, Iraq and the world community. I think they deserve not only the judgment of history but ought to be held accountable in courts of law and public opionion for their immoral, illegal, willful acts of deception and destruction. They have no shame and yet they are the instigators of some of the most shameful acts of history).

Zinni also basically said it is cowardly horseshit to claim we would have to wait 20 years to see how history judges Bush. As we should all know by now, history is not some objective truth either. It depends on who's doing the (story & myth) telling and what/whose interests they serve. (See Robert Wuhl's new show on HBO: "Assume the Position").

And he also joined the chorus of pragmatists and truth-tellers who know that simply voting or holding elections does not a democracy make.

Finally, a handful of people who aren't tip-toeing around TRUTHS or backing away from critical analysis and hard to swallow realities. I'd like to see Zinni in a position of leadership in the next round of national elections, preferably in the Democratic party to help hold their feet to the fire and to have someone who will stand up to the warmongers on the right and cowards on the left.

Zinni also has a new book, The Battle for Peace, which gets added to the recommended list!

..... and here's his prior book with Tom Clancy:

don't forget this one too, Lawless World by Philippe Sands:

FOOTNOTE: lest you think I'm actually impressed with Russert, he was less than impressive or hard-hitting with McCain, who appeared prior to Zinni. See Russert Watch at HuffPo for more on how Russert is one more who fawns over McCain and one among many in MSM (mainstream media) who perpetuate the myth of McCain as 'maverick' or 'moderate' -- more bullshit and more evidence the MSM and pop culture pundits are basically cowards who want to be popular and who join the bullies / crowd when it's safe, but don't have the gonads or backbone to speak truth to power when it matters. Unlike Murray Waas, Froomkin and a handful of others (Keith Obermann), they follow the crowd.