"Charlie Wilson's War"

Charlie Wilson was an important American politician. He is mainly known for his efforts in the cold war and the war in Iraq. Wilson just died (10th of February 2010) and in this occasion we watched the film called "Charlie Wilson's war." The film is about the most recognized part of his career, namely the battle of the war.

The Soviet-Afghan conflict was a violent war during the period of the Cold War. There were attacks from 1979 up until 1989. Communist Soviet wanted to conquer Afghanistan in order to make it a part of the Soviet union and presumably to show the USA that they were a strong power. After being appointed to the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defence he visited a refugee camp in one of the Soviet occupied territories of Afghanistan. He there experienced what terrible consequences the Soviet army had put on the Afghan people in the refugee camps. He met children who were amputated because on mines which they thought were toys, starvation, sickness, hatred and a lot of need. He therefore decided that the USA had to do something in order to help them. He therefore suggested that they would provide Mujahideen and with ammunition. Mujahideen was a group of Afghan oppositionists of the Soviet government of Afghanistan. The purpose for giving the weapons was for them to shoot down Soviet helicopters. It was a complicated operation which had to go through many links and persons due to the risk that Soviet would find out Afghanistan had received support from the USA. The mission succeeded and Soviet never managed to take over the power of Afghanistan.

However, there were downsides to this operation which I do not think the US government is particularly proud of today. After the Afghan people had fought against the Soviet communists the country was completely ruined and in desperate need of aid to both people and to build the country up again. But the Americans had already helped Afghanistan and withdrew from the country. This was a mistake. As Wilson's famous quote puts it so nicely: "These things happened. They were glorious and they changed the world... and then we fucked up the endgame." In the cold water of the Soviet and Afghanistan the well known political movement, Taliban, came into existence. It was also at this point that Obama appeared as a dominant leader. They were angry that the USA were leaving all responsibility behind when they left Afghanistan. They used the weapons and power Americans and Charley Wilson had given them and formed fundamentalist groups who strongly oppose the USA and the western world. This is an ironical twist to a story which originally had good intensions.

In my opinion the film portrayed Charlie Wilson very well. I feel that I learned a lot about him just watching it. In addition to experiencing how he was like as a political person we get to know about his personal life as well. He was find of women and alcohol and lived a rough life. I definitely recommend this film. It teaches the viewer a lot about an interesting man in American politics as well as how one man can change so much if he has the guts, wish and interest in what goes on in the world!

If you want, you can watch the film trailer here