CHARLIE WILSON'S WAR — ReThink Review

[idesofmarchUNIAEA]

google zbigniew brzezinski le nouvel. google zbigniew's memo to carter Christmas of 1979 see ubl's fatwa 1997'98 "We will take you down economically so you can not make afghanistan a play ground for war, no more". google charlie wilson gulbuddin hekmatyar. Dy'a think ubl was pissed? How many millions of refugees into pakistan? How many killed in 10 years of a created war? THINK!!! SEARCH NOW BEFORE THEY ARE REDACTED OR CRUBBED.

[wblackledg]

As much as Hollyweird and Sorkin tried to make this a See I told you so, The conservatism of this wonderful film bleeds through liberal packing. Perhaps a better president would have kept the Taliban and Bin Laden from filling the void in Afghanistan instead of spending this time turning White House Interns into Human Cigar humidors. If a lowy Texas congressman could find time from getting his boogie-board waxed to do his Job then so could a certain Arkansas President. 

[Remus0387]

the senators, charlie's colleagues said they don't care about building houses or roads for afghan civilians they were only there to stop the soviets. Or Gust saying now every extremist is rolling into kandehar to make a name for himself. The U.S may not have directly create Al Qaeida, but they didn't stop it either, so don't give me this malarkey about this would happen eventually, no if the right decisions were made, many of the consequences of our time could have been avoided.

[Remus0387]

So many people are unwilling to even admit the slightest idea that america's handling of afghanistan after the routing of the soviet army was in part instrumental in allowing the islamic fundamentalists to take control and create organisations like al qaeida and the taliban. Yes Osama bin Laden was a billionaire, but he was the black sheep of his family, his clout has been far exaggerated, so i don;t buy that al qaeida would of sprouted up regardless of what the U.S did. As you see in the film

[misterwipedown]

Nice review, but a serious liberal slant.

[yashvenkatesh]

Do you think that the countries that the US has provided aid to feel grateful for the largesse? Far from it, they rationalize that the US was only serving its own interests by providing the money. There is no point throwing more money at them, they'll hate you anyways. The US is better off spending money where its really needed...at home

[yashvenkatesh]

The abrupt end of US involvement did not create AQ or cause 9/11. This is a lie propogated by Pak. Ironically, it was Pak (or rather their intelligence agency, the ISI) that created the Taliban. Once in power, the Taliban provided a haven for Bin Laden because he agreed to pay them (He's a billionaire, remember?).

I think we should be happy that US funding stopped. Or 9/11 would have been funded by US taxpayer money!

[tairanotomomori]

Hindsight is a marvellous thing. Anybody can sound like the wisest person in the world after the fact.

[MrDurcon]

Is this a movie review or a history lesson?

[dantankun]

The USA is probably now regretting that they ever funded and supported the Mujahadeen or the Taliban, never, never trust the Islamist.

[AIRDAM1]

Hindsight is 20/20 Kim.

The idea that not helping the Afgans after the Soviets left would cause a major terrorist attack on US soil is INSANE.

[philWynk]

What incredible pap. Does this infant genuinely believe that if we had not given the Afghans the means to drive away the Soviets, Muslims would not believe the US to be the "Great Satan," would not be training their children by the hundreds of millions to give their bodies to Jihad, would not be committing acts of violence around the world? He needs an education on Muslim activism. We were the "Great Satan" long before 1987.

[prodprod]

Charlie Wilson's War makes the issue of Post Soviet Afghanistan seem very simple. It was actually extremely complicated. The pro-Soviet regime was still in power. Competing Islamic forces *prior to the Taliban* were fighting it *and* one another. Pakistan would support one, then the other. Our weapons were being used in what was turning into a major civil war with no clear good guys or bad guys.

It wasn't just a matter of "let's spent a little money on reconstruction."

It was a major mess.

[ryanoose]

should not have ever left Afgan in such shape after we got what we wanted. But the mantality of men at the time was different, they were like, Hey we helped them kick out the Russians, what more do they want, which i can definatly see us thinking. Fucked up the End Game, now lets see if we learned our lesson. will we just leave again or fix things right. We must start to weigh the reactions of our actions of war with a greater measure and scrutiny. realizing the human cost n responsability

[cptk3rk]

ok movie except of the aircraft getting shot down footage was as bad and inaccurate as the movie Pearl Harbor where you see modern destroyers getting blown up in a movie based WW2

They used F-4 phantoms and F-16s as soviet migs, Hueys as soviet hind helicopters i mean common are people that stupid to not realize thats not soviet aircraft getting shot down?

[CohanDigitmatta]

think you missed the point of the movie you deadshit equipment jockey, lol.

[omerthe3rd]

i haven't seen this movie .. bu ti can clearly see that as usual those narrow minded americans must have tried to show Pakistani army as an old style backward rag tag army of british era. and even those places where he is meeting Zia-ul-haq looks an old style Taj-Mahal or something.. mentioning that Islamabad is one of the most newest and modern cities in the world hence it can have that old architecture and those Pak military men were wearing 100 years old style uniform .. damn u Hollywood !!

[biggiejeffrey]

So...what you're saying is that we brought 9/11 upon ourselves, even though Bin Laden, who is a BILLIONAIRE himself, could have used his money to rebuild Afghanistan and bring it into the 21st century. But, instead, chose to use his cash to build opium farms, turn kids into terrorists, and...oh, yes...CAUSE 9/11 ALL BY HIMSELF, you IDIOT! This sort of "blame-game-for-9/11" was stupid the first time I heard it from Falwell & Robertson, and it's just as dumb coming from you liberals, too!

[jsjkim]

What i find fascinating is that people don't seem to understand that foreign policy decisions have consequences, and how you treat another country can come back to bite you in the ass. It happens all the time. But no country has ever gone to war with another country because of the presence of gays in that country.

[biggiejeffrey]

We are NOT to blame for 9/11, nor for Afghanistan's civil war. Only the people that actually did these things (like Bin Laden) are responsible...so STOP trying to use THEIR centuries-old religious hatred as a political weapon in your "war" against WASP Americans. That's as stupid as a Nazi on trial at Nurenburg trying to justify his killing of Jews on the poverty that his country suffered at the end of the First World War.

[1982Lennon]

@biggiejeffrey Have you ever done research or read anything about foreign affairs? Doesn't seem like it.... :(

[icannotfly]

@biggiejeffrey money doesn't matter without training, and where do you think he go that?

[NickB1967]

Hey, the Taliban took power in 1995, Cinton sat by and did nothing.

[jsjkim]

Right. And the US pulling all assets out of Afghanistan when the Russians left caused a horrific civil war that wrecked the country further, and the US didn't give a damn. Do you think defeating the Russians in AFG was worth 9/11, an Afghan civil war, and the current Iraq and Afghan wars?

[NickB1967]

YES defeating the Soviets was absolutely necessary! The Soviet Empire was a horrific monstrosity, in many respects even worse than Hitler's Third Reich. This is something the American Left refuses to admit to this day.

As for Iraq, Saddam was a goon and getting too big for his britches either way, regardless.

[philWynk]

@jsjkim Imbecile! What assets did we have IN Afghanistan? A handful of military advisors? How, precisely, were they going to prevent a civil war???

The meme that defeating the Russians "led to 9/11" is just propaganda aimed at sucking in brainless leftists. It's not even A LITTLE plausible. Violent Muslim activism began long before the Afghan war, as did anti-American and anti-Israeli sentiment. Bin Laden is a Saudi, not an Afghan, and gathered arms for Afghans before we did.

[pinochet222]

@jsjkim "the US pulling all assets out of Afghanistan when the Russians left"

I don't think this is historically accurate. BOTH sides continued the funding, the Soviets continued the funding of Najibullah's moderate government (which the neocons had never accepted) with billions of dollars right till the very end of the Soviet Union's existence. It only failed because the corrupt new Russia was pressured into taking a 180 and embargoing it completely.

[Sorry for replying to an ancient comment.]

[NickB1967]

@jsjkim: YES. The Islamunist tin-horns are frankly easy compared to the Soviets. I don't recall an Islamunist Sputnik, do you?

In other history, we had to build up the Soviets to beat the Nazis. Realpolitik (ray-al-paul-eat-eek) is messy. It is all too easy, on the other hand, to engage in after the fact naysaying.

[hairyfatslobpig]

@NickB1967 Thats exactly what Clinton did and so would i with her under my desk

[CocteauDalighari]

@NickB1967 Actually, Clinton began funding the Taliban, to the tune of $10 million/yr, to keep "peace" in war-happy Afghanistan; funding that ended only on Sept. 12, 2001. So, you see, Clinton did not sit by & do nothing: his Repo. opposition sat by & did nothing.

[NickB1967]

@CocteauDalighari: You got me there. I enjoy your sarcastic wit.

[louiseobrien2010]

@NickB1967 Actually, Bill Clinton organised for both Iraq and Afghanistan to be bombed during his second term in office, this is the sort of thing that causes wars. But of course we had to have 9/11 because a war had not started.

[NickB1967]

I take it Jonathan Kim would have preferred Soviet victory. Ugh.

[jsjkim]

I'm sure there was a way to beat the russians without creating al qaeda, creating a civil war in Afghanistan, empowering fundamentalists, and creating the impetus to start both the AFG and iraq wars, which have cost hundreds of thousands of lives.

[NickB1967]

@jsjkim: Sorry, no. In other history, we had to build up the Soviets to beat the Nazis. Realpolitik (ray-al-paul-eat-eek) is messy. It is all too easy, on the other hand, to engage in after the fact naysaying.