Before going to see Charkie Wilson please read

[burrowowl]

http://www.alternet.org/stories/71286/?page=2

Please to get a little perspective.

[rockymountaindem]

1. Kick n/t

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. Doesn't make it any less of a good movie

[burrowowl]

3. Yes but

Charlie Wilson and the CIA may have laid the foundations for 9/11.
So, view it as a good movie but not that truthful.

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. Would they really have known what would happen more than 10 years later?

[burrowowl]

6. Yes

Remember they were Republicans even if RayGun called them 'leftists' (they weren't I remember, he wanted to wash his party's hands). And if you read the article why was the man we should have reported killed just before the Afghan War!?!? wit a Bu$h in office.
I am very disappointed in Hanks and Roberts.

edit to show:

"As it so happens, Massoud did not receive any financial support from the Saudis, because they mistakenly thought he was a Shia Muslim. He was Sunni. Nevertheless, he was not altogether displeased with the situation, because it meant he didn't have to deal with the Arab jihadis. This is one of several reasons why, had we actually supported Massoud and not Hekmatyar, there would have been no 9/11. To be sure, there were quite a few people during the 1980s, including several U.S. Senators and various journalists, trying to warn Wilson and the CIA that the consequences of supporting Hekmatyar would be globally catastrophic. In response the CIA would always throw up its hands, exclaiming, 'We have no control over the distribution. It's all handled by Pakistan, and the Pakistanis liked Massoud even less than the Saudis."

1. The Massoud "inaccuracy" was included because Tom Hanks "just can't deal with this 9/11 thing"; and because Wilson and Joanne Herring (played by Julia Roberts in the movie) threatened legal action after reading an earlier, more honest, draft of the screenplay by Aaron Sorkin. Herring was Pakistan's honorary consul to the United States in the 1980s, and as such, enlisted Wilson into supporting the cause of the Afghans. Neither Wilson nor Herring wants history to remember them for their contribution to the events that culminated in 9/11.

http://www.alternet.org/stories/71286/?page=2

[alarimer]

8. Wilson was a Democrat

Not a liberal one exactly but we can't blame Reagan entirely for this.

[Aristus]

12. For a Texas Democrat, or any kind of Texas pol for that matter, he was pretty liberal.

I'm just saying...

[lastliberalintexas]

13. Molly Ivins called Charlie one of the best

feminists the state had ever produced. His voting record on gender, race and labor issues was rather good. There were a few years in the early 80s that he was a Reagan Dem, but after that he wised up again. Still not perfect, but far more studious and considered than he pretended.

[bullwinkle428]

5. Because we totally fucked over the Afghanis when they wanted our help -

in exchange for their willingness to take the fight against the Soviet Union directly with the weapons we were supplying to them, they wanted humanitarian aid. The Reagan administration promised them this aid, and then failed to deliver, thus incubating their feelings of hatred for the U.S. Seems to be kind of a pattern...*cough*(Bush Sr. abandoning Shiites after Gulf War I)*cough*...

[alarimer]

7. They did. And the book made that case.

I haven't seen the film but from what I have read, it doesn't deal much with the implications of what they did. Blowback is a bitch.

[burrowowl]

9. Blowback is a BITCH.

That's for damn sure!

[lastliberalintexas]

11. Our abandonment of the Afghan people laid the groundwork for the Taliban

Charlie urged continued aid even after the Soviet pullout, but Reagan/Bush would have none of it. Had we helped rebuild their country, do you really think the Taliban would have later come to power?

The article that you have cited to numerous times was written by one who either has an agenda or is not that informed of Afghanistan in the 1980s.

[burrowowl]

10. Unfortunately, the assasination of Bhutto makes this

topic even more interesting re Wilson's involvement with Pakistan.