The Home Front

Holy shit! Yesterday morning on Meet the Press I found the person that I want to run for President. His name is Tony Zinni, the retired USMC General who was the commander of US CENTCOM (Central Command). I never thought I'd see myself wanting a military man to be president, but damn! This man is smart and calls out Bush, Cheney and Rummy on their bullshit. He knows more about the situation in Iraq than those three buffoons combined and can articulate it better than any of the idiot Democrats who are going to run. He's not afraid to use big words and actually call the situation for what it is instead of the soundbites that politicians use. In this interview on Meet The Press he went in depth on his knowledge that there was no evidence at all that Saddam had WMDs, that Dubya and Dick were pushing for war from the beginning, and how 10 years worth of planning for the day they would re-engage Iraq was just ignored and put us in this screwed-up situation we're in now. He also talked about how the administration is using the press as scapegoats for the problems in Iraq. But the best thing he said during this whole conversation was this, courtesy of MTP transcripts:

Well, first of all, you have to understand how you instill democracy. It isn't an election. An election doesn't equal democracy. Think about it. We need an educated electorate. We need political parties that are transparent, that people understand their platforms, that compete in a fair process. We have to have a governmental system that people are voting into, and they have to understand that, and then you can have elections. We've sort of reversed the process.

Look what's happened in Iraq. We've had three elections now, and we don't have a government yet that can stand up. There aren't people that, I think, really understood what they voted for. I saw a scene in Basra, one of the elections, where a woman ran in so excited about voting, and then she asked the poll tender, "Who do I vote for?" And he told her she-he couldn't tell her, but he had to read a list to her of 169 parties. She was confused. When he hit number seven that said the Islamic party of something or other, she said, "That's the one." I mean, is that democracy? Are they voting how they're told at, at Friday prayers? Are they voting for sectarian leaders that dominate their lives? Do they truly understand what it's all about?

It's not just democracy. It's economic development. It's social reform. This takes time, takes an investment from the stable part of the world and the unstable part of the world to establish these.

Isn't that just the best and most articulate rebuke of Bushie's claim that democracy has been brought to Iraq? Why can't we find one Democrat willing to say it like that? Instead, we get pictures on TV of Iraqis holding up their purple fingers as some sort of proof that they now have democracy over there, when they still don't even have anything close to it. Like the General said, three elections and still no government. John Kerry may have won if he had half the balls and brains the General has. If the Democrats are smart, and I don't think they have been lately (like 20+ years), they'll recruit this man right away, tell Kerry (Mr. Voted For The War Before I Voted Against It) and Hillary (Mrs. Pro-Flag Burning Amendment and Iraqi Invasion Supporter) to sit down and shut the hell up, skip the primaries and just anoint this guy their candidate. Don't ask, beg him to be your man, Democrats.

So there it is, an anti-war guy endorsing a military man for President. There is a group that's trying to get him to run for Senate, but I say they're aiming too low.

Zinni has a book coming out tomorrow called The Battle for Peace : A Frontline Vision of America's Power and Purpose and I can't wait to read it. Of course, this being the Bush economy it might be a couple of afford before I can afford it (his master plan is working, keep the people poor so they can't buy books that provoke debate and ideas among the masses). I may have to wait even longer to buy the Billy Bragg box set that I really, really want so I can read the General's book.