Charlie Wilson's War

This past Saturday my wife and her friend Erica went and saw a movie together while I went and saw Charlie Wilson's War. I've been wanting to see this film for a while and lept at the opportunity. I thought it was phenomenal, and I'm bummed that it hasn't received more Oscar nods. I thought for sure it would be up for best picture, best actor and best actress, but it's only up for best supporting actor for Philip Seymour Hoffman who was astounding.

The film was about the Soviet war with Afghanistan in the late eighties. Soviet helicopters were flying over Afghan villages and gunning people down. Russian soldiers were massacring Afghans and raping their women. Pakistan was facing a huge Afghan refugee crisis, as Afghans were flooding their borders. In the midst of all this stepped Texas congressman Charlie Wilson played by Tom Hanks. Wilson sat on the Defense Appropriations committee, and as a favor for a friend stopped in Pakistan to meet with their president. While he was there he was flown to a refugee camp to witness the carnage first hand. I loved this part of the movie because it showed that a womanizing, alcoholic, cocaine-using politician can have a soul. He was so moved by what he saw that he went back home and got to work. With the help of CIA officer Gust Avrakotos played by Hoffman, Wilson ended up getting the Pentagon to spend 300 million dollars to arm the Afghan Mujaheddin. The Mujahideen ended up defeating the Soviets which struck a huge blow in the way of bringing down the Soviet empire.

The film gave a strong and fair critique of U.S. foreign policy. After the war Wilson tried to get the U.S. government to help rebuild Afghanistan. He was told that the American people don't give a shit about building schools and hospitals, they cared about defeating the Soviets. It's also said that the Pakistani president Wilson visited had killed the previous president in a military coup. The U.S. has consistently worked with oppressive regimes in an effort to defeat even more oppressive regimes. Because of this the U.S. has often supported it's future enemies. Such was the case with Saddam Hussein.

Where this movie shined was in addressing religious fundamentalism and extremism. What was interesting is that all the good guys in the movie were fundamentalists/extremists whether they were Jewish, Muslim or Christian. One of the most disturbing moments in the movie was where a Christian congressman gave a speech to the Mujaheddin when the Pentagon decided to arm them with the weapons they needed to fight the Soviets. The speech was very manichaean, much like the speeches GW gave after 911. The congressman said the battle between the Mujaheddin and the Soviets was a battle of good versus evil, and that God was on their side. One of our largest flaws as a nation is that we're duped into believing we are the, "good guys" and our enemies are, "the bad guys;" that we're good and they're evil. We bought into this twisted way of thinking after 911. The reality is things are messy. Sometimes we work with people who come to power by military coups, and execute the former leader. Sometimes we work with men like Stalin. In the early eighties there was a groundswell of support for Saddam. Sometimes Congressmen with shady ethics are moved by witnessing human misery first hand, and they do everything in their power to fight for justice.

The movie ended with this quote from Wilson: We changed the world, and then fucked up the endgame. I thought that summed up the message of the movie. The U.S. uses it's power to, at times, great things like arm peasants to win a battle with an empire. Then after the battle was won we didn't stick around to see that those people were cared for and educated. Of course we know what happened to Afghanistan later on. Could that have been prevented? Can we learn from our mistakes?