Just watched Dan Rather on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” talk very pointedly about having recently spent time on the ground with the American military in Afghanistan. He went on to explain what the additional troops that the President is about to send to this part of the world likely will–and won’t–accomplish.

Whatever you may think of Rather and his often tumultuous time as anchor of “The CBS Evening News”, it is without dispute that Rather knows the territory in Afghanistan. He first reported on the ground there covering the 1980s Soviet Invasion of the country during George H.W. Bush’s Presidency. Rather’s reports from the country in local Mujahadeen garb earned him the nickname “Gunga Dan”.

It also got the attention of a Texas Congressman, Charlie Wilson. Wilson then went on to secretly fund the Mujahadeen’s fight against the Soviets via the CIA, which eventually led to the Soviets leaving the country. The operation became the story of the book “Charlie Wilson’s War”, which begat the movie of the same name.

That’s why it’s Rather who is shown on the television that Tom Hanks (as Congressman Wilson) is watching from a Las Vegas hottub with some naked female patrons at the start of the movie.

This all leads me to the point that at 78 years old, it is Dan Rather, the reporter, who is humping around Afghanistan in 2009 to do some solid reporting on exactly what the United States military is doing in that part of the world. Rather, who now works for Mark Cuban’s HDNet channel, hasn’t just been sitting around since his messy departure from CBS in 2005. He’s been producing a weekly hour for HDNet called “Dan Rather Reports”, which I admit that I–probably just like you–have never seen. (Though during the time, he did file a $70 million dollar lawsuit against his former employer, which was dismissed by the NY State Appeals Court in September.)

The biggest shame is that Rather’s reporting isn’t seen by a larger audience than the one a specialty cable channel like HDNet can garner. One might surmise that Rather now shows up as a guest on MSNBC from time to time to talk about his reporting as a little bit of a “up yours” to his former employer.

But give the man his due. He’s still going to one of the world’s true hotspots and doing the thing he’s always been good at.

Finding and reporting the story.

I sure hope I’m still capable of doing that in say, 25 years or so from now.