Ok, I’m just a middle american, semi educated, technical writer that makes pretty good money and was born with a common sense gene. I don’t proclaim that I’m “in” with politics and know the ins and outs of all the things going on, but I smell something a bit rancid in this whole “Charlie Wilson’s War” movie coming out now, or at all.
The synopsis on Internet Movie Database reads in part: "Good-Time Charlie" Wilson, a flawed and fun-loving Congressman from the piney woods of East Texas, deftly operates the levers of power to funnel money and weapons to the Mujahedin of Afghanistan following the Soviet invasion of their country in late 1979.”
My, they make it sound like a romping comedy, don’t they. Until it creeps into your brain... hey wait a minute!
First of all, flawed and fun-loving Charlie refuses to answer questions about his alleged cocaine use, and is an admitted drinker, seemingly portrayed in the movie trailers as a constant drinker (your tax dollars at work there). He was a womanizer and in interview with ABC news “didn’t keep count” of all the women he slept with.
He, along with your tax dollars, and the help of the CIA, funneled weapons into Afghanistan to help the “freedom fighters” ward off the evil communists. The movie trailers make it seem as though Charlie’s actions were solely responsible for the Berlin wall being knocked down and the fall of communism itself. Hardly.
I’m sure the general public will cheer the drunken, womanizing Charlie on in his antics, saving the brave freedom fighters from the horrible communist hoards without realizing that the money he used to help them came from their pockets. In some cases, if not all, Congress and the Senate weren’t told what they were voting on because the whole thing was so covert, they weren’t allowed to know, just that it was for “a good cause”.
It sure was a different era back in then. Apparently arms for the fall of communism is much different than arms for hostages, and by the Iraq war we’re just plain sick of war for democracy. Nowadays a drunken, womanizing Congressman is shamed and rightfully thrown out of office. Back then he was given a covert mission and all the money he wanted.
Of course the producers of the movie and everyone interviewing “Good Time Charlie” now tip toe around the very fact that the “freedom fighters” he helped back then went on to form the very same terrorists that attacked our shores, killed our people. Oh sure, there was no way for him to know that back then, and it shouldn’t be his fault... or should it? He admits that the U.S. pulled out once the Soviets did, and no effort was made to help the Afghanistan people rebuild after years of war. Once again, we used another country to get what we wanted and threw them away like a kleenex. No wonder they’re a bit pissed off at us.
So go ahead and see Charlie Wilson’s War. Go see just how sneaky the U.S. can be with your tax dollars, perhaps not supporting causes you truly believe in, or even perhaps supporting the “bad guys”. The good guys of today, as we’ve seen, can turn out to be the bad guys of tomorrow. When you leave the movie theater... think about what else the U.S. is doing with your money that you don’t know about, because its too “sensitive” to tell you.
The synopsis on Internet Movie Database reads in part: "Good-Time Charlie" Wilson, a flawed and fun-loving Congressman from the piney woods of East Texas, deftly operates the levers of power to funnel money and weapons to the Mujahedin of Afghanistan following the Soviet invasion of their country in late 1979.”
My, they make it sound like a romping comedy, don’t they. Until it creeps into your brain... hey wait a minute!
First of all, flawed and fun-loving Charlie refuses to answer questions about his alleged cocaine use, and is an admitted drinker, seemingly portrayed in the movie trailers as a constant drinker (your tax dollars at work there). He was a womanizer and in interview with ABC news “didn’t keep count” of all the women he slept with.
He, along with your tax dollars, and the help of the CIA, funneled weapons into Afghanistan to help the “freedom fighters” ward off the evil communists. The movie trailers make it seem as though Charlie’s actions were solely responsible for the Berlin wall being knocked down and the fall of communism itself. Hardly.
I’m sure the general public will cheer the drunken, womanizing Charlie on in his antics, saving the brave freedom fighters from the horrible communist hoards without realizing that the money he used to help them came from their pockets. In some cases, if not all, Congress and the Senate weren’t told what they were voting on because the whole thing was so covert, they weren’t allowed to know, just that it was for “a good cause”.
It sure was a different era back in then. Apparently arms for the fall of communism is much different than arms for hostages, and by the Iraq war we’re just plain sick of war for democracy. Nowadays a drunken, womanizing Congressman is shamed and rightfully thrown out of office. Back then he was given a covert mission and all the money he wanted.
Of course the producers of the movie and everyone interviewing “Good Time Charlie” now tip toe around the very fact that the “freedom fighters” he helped back then went on to form the very same terrorists that attacked our shores, killed our people. Oh sure, there was no way for him to know that back then, and it shouldn’t be his fault... or should it? He admits that the U.S. pulled out once the Soviets did, and no effort was made to help the Afghanistan people rebuild after years of war. Once again, we used another country to get what we wanted and threw them away like a kleenex. No wonder they’re a bit pissed off at us.
So go ahead and see Charlie Wilson’s War. Go see just how sneaky the U.S. can be with your tax dollars, perhaps not supporting causes you truly believe in, or even perhaps supporting the “bad guys”. The good guys of today, as we’ve seen, can turn out to be the bad guys of tomorrow. When you leave the movie theater... think about what else the U.S. is doing with your money that you don’t know about, because its too “sensitive” to tell you.
1 comment:
It is exactly this short-sighted view of foreign policy that we are facing what we are in Afghanistan today. The Taliban is shooting us with our own damned weapons. The same weapons that were funnelled into Afghanistan to fight the communists. Oh, and the whole argument that Sadam Hussein had to be taken out because he had biological weapons? Yeah we knew he had biological weapons. Because we gave them to him! We had the shipping manifests! We had just been hoping he would use them on the Iranians, and not his own people, but hey, you know how it is. You arm a screaming lunatic, you just can't be responsible for his actions, right?
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