At the very end of the movie: "Charlie Wilson's War", Charlie is begging a congressional committee to allocate money to build schools in Afghanistan. (After the Soviets had been driven out by the Afghan freedom fighters.)
The American Congress was NOT interested in putting any more money into Afghanistan, after spending a billion in the war effort.
I'm sorry folks, but I have to paraphrase from memory because I do not have a copy of the movie handy, but Charlie Wilson makes this speech:
"…This is what we always do.. We spend the money helping spread democracy in these covert wars. But when it comes to rebuilding after the war, we leave and we do not spend a nickel.."
Charlie Wilson was correct..!!
Neither President Bush (41) nor President Clinton were willing to spend money on Afghanistan. The country fell into the hands of the Taliban and al Qaeda. Afghanistan became the training ground for the 9/11 terrorists and many Jihad's we are facing today.
Luckily, we have learned this lesson from Charlie Wilson and we will not repeat this mistake.
Not so fast, there buddy…
Two of the presidential candidates have NOT learned this valuable lesson.
Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
Both Obama and Hillary would like to pull about 90,000 US troops out of Iraq, and leave 50,000 US troops in Iraq to…
Well…
Cross their fingers, pray, and hope to God they do not get overrun by insurgents.
How would you like to be one of the soldiers that Obama will "leave behind in Iraq"..??
It would be like a presidential candidate saying that- "New York City is a lost cause. We have had police officers in the city for hundreds of years and yet people are still dying. Police are dying. So I plan to pull out two thirds of the police from New York City. We will place the remaining police in a remote section on New York. They will only go in if it is necessary.
(Which would be every freaking day..!!)
The Obama and Hillary plans for Iraq- SUCK..!!
Either leave the troop levels near where they are so that there is some control.
Or pull all of the troops out.
You do NOT leave 50,000 troops in Iraq, trying to do what 150,000 just did.
But if we learn anything from History…
If we learn from Charlie Wilson's War…
We should not leave Iraq to fall into the hands of radical Islam.
Charlie Wilson's War
Here is one liberal leaning movie that I am not going to BBQ on my blog site. Because it might have unintended consequences that could help out.
Democrats have so little to really feel patriotic about in modern times.
Let's face it-
They hate the president- (that's a given) They want to impeach President Bush. But- for lack of "good" evidence or incompetence, they cannot seem to do it.
They hate the war on terrorism. When a democrat has to admit that the troop surge has helped in Iraq, the look on that democrat's face resembles massive gas cramps. (It really hurts a democrat to say America is winning a war.)
Democrats have been in control of congress for over a year and have done nothing. They passed a budget. (But congress HAS to pass budgets. It is part of their job and every congress, since the very beginning of this country, passes budgets.) The democratic congress renamed some post offices and wrote a letter to Rush Limbaugh.
So when you think about it:
Democrats have accomplished nothing in the past 8 years and have spent that time opposing everything. Trying to make republican political policy a crime.
They have nothing to really feel patriotic about. So they just hate everything.
But along comes Charlie Wilson's War.
Democrat-Charlie Wilson- AKA "Good time Charlie" was a heavy drinking Texas congressman. The movie depicts Wilson in a hot tub with "chicks" when he hears the news that the Soviets have invaded Afghanistan. Wilson, who hates communism, feels the need to do something about this.
Along with a CIA agent and a rich female, Charlie Wilson- single handedly buys 1 billion dollars worth of Stinger Missiles and other weapons. Wilson defeats the Russians and causes the Soviet Union to dissolve.
Wilson does this all by himself. (Well, he did have help from one rich female and one CIA agent.)
Let's forget the fact that you would have to be blind and dumb, (or at least not born yet and have no knowledge of American history in the 1980's) to not realize that President Reagan opposed the Soviets at every turn. His presidency was based on bringing down the Russians.
Actually, several Russian historians point to Reagan's "star wars" defense system that caused the most fear in the old Soviet Empire. In 1991, when the Soviets watched "The Patriot" missile shoot down Russian made "Skud" missiles, they knew the game was over. (The Russians believed America had perfected "Star Wars.") The Soviet Union dissolved shortly after.
Isn't kind of ironic to discuss the fall of the Soviet Union, when we now know the Soviets are still there. The Russian heart is beating strong and "chuck full" of communism.
However, the movie Charlie Wilson's War will bring all this conversation back.
Charlie Wilson was in no way a "lone wolf." He was the most vocal in support of Afghan Freedom Fighters, that is true. But Wilson was allowed to proceed because of President Reagan's policy of defeating the Russians. If you remember Ollie North was the main power in the covert action in Central America. Charlie Wilson was the lead figure in Reagan's covert action in Afghanistan.
If anything, this shows how agile the Reagan Presidency was. That Reagan could work covertly with conservative Col. North in Central America and democratic congressman Wilson in Afghanistan.
You just do not see that happening with President Bush or Clinton.
Today, everything is a "republican effort" or a "democratic try."
Charlie Wilson will remind democrats what it is like to "do something", instead of oppose everything.
Charlie Wilson believed communism was a threat. So much so, that he made it his goal to stop it. When was the last time you saw democrats with that much passion? The modern democrats TALK about doing things- (Like ending the war in Iraq, impeaching Bush, and creating national health care.) but they never get around to doing anything about it.
The story of Charlie Wilson, though highly embellished, might just remind democrats what it is like to have passion to love your country. Instead of a passion to change your country.
But Wilson's War will do much more than that. Charlie Wilson will remind liberals that helping the Afghan Freedom fighters was a bi-partisan effort by democrats and republicans. Started by Wilson and President Carter, continuing into Reagan's administration, this was an American effort to topple the Soviets.
We- Americans- helped the Afghan Freedom Fighter defeat the Soviets. We then backed away from Afghanistan and asked nothing in return. Radical Islam took a knife and stabbed us in the back. They attacked us for no reason.
Charlie Wilson proves that Radical Islam cannot be trusted.
We helped the Radical Islamic warriors and they turned and attacked us.
So, even though this movie uses the "superman syndrome" and shows Wilson as a "one man show", the movie might remind democrats that when America works together as a team, we can do great things.
Also, Wilson will remind you that you cannot make deals with radical Islam.
They literally stab you in the back.
Though I am not attacking this movie the way I have other anti- American war movies, I want to point out a few flaws that are skipped over in the movie.
First- The Soviets invaded Afghanistan during the last years of President Carter's term. The CIA had no clue it was happening and this was caused by budget cuts to the CIA and the military during Carter's presidency.
Charlie Wilson didn't care for the idea of "Stinger Missiles" being the main weapon for the Freedom Fighters. He felt that spending $20,000 bucks for one gun was crazy. Without Wilson's approval, Stinger Missiles were sent to Afghanistan and placed into service. When Wilson saw how easily the Stingers shot down Soviet helicopters, Wilson was on board with the Stinger. It was the Stinger Missile that turned the tide against the Soviets.
The movie's screenwriter, Aaron Sorkin is a Hollywood liberal, who hates conservatives. It was evident with his TV show- "The West Wing."
Charlie Wilson claims the main reason that radical Islam attacked us later,(Sept, 11, 2001) was because we did nothing to stop the Taliban from taking control of Afghanistan. The Taliban officially took over Afghanistan during the Clinton Presidency. President Clinton believed the Taliban might stabilize the region, so Clinton did nothing. But the Taliban ended up radicalizing the people.
I do not totally blame Clinton for that. President Bush (41) could have done something. I do not blame Charlie Wilson.
This story is a hard lesson to learn. You cannot make deals with radical Islam. You cannot trust a terrorist.
Wilson made a lot of deals with terrorists. (In a sense, we all did back then.)
Written by AR Babonie for The Angry Republican
(Parts of this editorial were published on Dec 22, 2007 under the title- Charlie Wilson's War.)
