I watched the movie Charlie Wilson’s War last week. I did not anticipate anything worthwhile, as Hollywood seldom shows much flair for depth or detail. And, as expected, Charlie was glamorized, the U.S. role in destabilizing Afghanistan minimized, and the war was portrayed as yet another rescue operation. Russians were the bad guys. But I had read a little bit more about Charlie himself, and was curious how Hollywood would portray him.
Russians really were bad guys, by the way. They killed hundreds of thousands of innocent citizens using sophisticated weaponry against a peasant population, just like we do. They left in their wake fields littered with bomblets that look like toys, blowing the limbs off children, just like we do. (Israel recently used cluster bombs, the source of the disabling bomblets, against Palestinians. The U.S. used them in Iraq in 1991 and 2003, and in Serbia in 1999. I do not know if the U.S. is currently using cluster bombs in Afghanistan. It would reveal our inner Soviet to do so.)
The people who made this movie don’t know that we do all this stuff too, of course. It would not help if they did know it – it would only interfere with a good story.
According to Zbigniew Brzezinski, the U.S. set out in the summer of 1979, while Carter was still president, to lure the Soviets into an Afghanistan adventure.
According to the official version of history, CIA aid to the Mujahadeen began during 1980, that is to say, after the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan, 24 Dec 1979. But the reality, secretly guarded until now, is completely otherwise Indeed, it was July 3, 1979 that President Carter signed the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. And that very day, I wrote a note to the president in which I explained to him that in my opinion this aid was going to induce a Soviet military intervention.
Hollywood should appreciate this, but doesn’t. They do make movies like Alien vs. Predator, where monsters fight it out while set extras look on. That was the 1980 conflict between the U.S. and U.S.S.R. The people of Afghanistan were mere extras.
Anyway, Charlie comes off as a lovable drunk/party boy/cocaine user – a man with a quick wit and good heart. His compadre in this adventure, Gust Avrakotos (played by Philip Seymour Hoffman), is also witty and quick and very smart. The movie was enjoyable, though Julia Roberts, who played Houston socialite/philanthropist Joanne Herring, is almost repulsive and detracts from the movie. She has all the acting skills of John Wayne (same character placed in different situations).
Of course, it’s all nonsense. No surprises there. Poor Afghanistan, then, as now, caught in the middle of the Great Game. At that time the game included Pakistan and Saudi Arabia in addition to the usual suspects. Each had its own ambitions, none cared about the people of the region.
The Russian/American war of the 1980’s destroyed the Afghanistan economy and left in its wake a country without a government. Then both walked away. The movie mentions this – Charlie is heartbroken that he can’t get any humanitarian aid for the place. But the power vacuum was soon filled by the war orphans who came to be known as “Taliban”. Afghanistan, barely able to feed itself, did produce one cash crop – poppies.
After the U.S. and the Soviets left Afghanistan in 1988, the country descended into “one of the more horrific wars of the twentieth century” (Chalmers Johnson). The CIA did not pay much attention until the former Mujahadeen, reconstituted (and renamed “Al Qaida” by the U.S.) bombed U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam in the summer of 1998. Later, as official history goes, these same ragtags assembled and carried out the nefarious deeds of 9/11/01. The fact that most of the hijackers on that date were Saudis fits perfectly with the backdrop of the war of the 1980’s. Many of the soldiers the U.S. recruited to fight the Soviets were Saudi nationals.
The U.S. decided to re-enter Afghanistan in 2001, purportedly in the hunt for Osama, though they never really tried very hard to find him. Instead, they unseated the Taliban and installed a puppet government, just as the Soviets did in 1980. That government now controls Kabul and Kandahār, and not much else. Lately the U.S. has stepped up its efforts as the Taliban has reemerged and grown strong again. The war is spilling over into Pakistan, as the boundaries in the area are mostly symbolic anyway. It is developing into a regional conflict that may well spin out of control. Obama may have his Vietnam.
And, of course, the people of the area are mere set extras. The U.S. shows no more regard for them now than the Soviets in the 1980’s, gunning them down with impunity. We use drones – the Soviets used Hind helicopter gunships. The results are identical.
One must not discount the proximity of Afghanistan to Caspian Basin oil. Some of that oil now passes through Turkey and Kosovo (guarded in Kosovo by U.S. Camp Bondsteel, constructed after our 1999 attack on Serbia). The logical direction of the oil would be east, to India and China, but the U.S. doesn’t want that outcome. Looking at a map of the region, the logical solution is to pipe it through Afghanistan and Pakistan to ports on the Indian Ocean. But this requires a stable government in Afghanistan (and Pakistan). It may never happen.
U.S. foreign policy does not change, one administration to another, Democrat or Republican. Obama is carrying out the Clinton/Bush policy, though the conflict is intensifying. McCain would be doing the same.
And philanthropist/idealist Charlie Wilson? He recently had a heart transplant, the old one having been worn out by so damned much caring.
Piece of Mindful 