Charlie Wilson's War

A movie is coming out Friday called Charlie Wilson's War. Charlie's a Congressman who helps in the U.S. funding of the Afghan Mujahideen Freedom Fighters who are fighting the invading Soviets. Think of Mr. Smith goes to Ho Chi Minh to help fight Imperialist Americans, but with mustaches and Vodka.

Slate's review on the movie Staring Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts and Philip Seymour Hoffman.

You can read up on Charlie here.

For those of you who don't know about the U.S.'s connection and propping up of bin Laden, it might help for you to read some history.

• 1979 – US supplies Stinger missiles and tons of ammunition to fight the Russians, 6 months before the Russians invade.


• 1979 - USSR goes to war with Afghanistan after US manages to get the damn thing rolling. Those in Afghanistan are known as Islamic fundamentalist Mujahideen insurgents. (note key word… “insurgents”)


• 1989 February – Russians withdrawl.


• 1991 – The Soviet Afghan war leads to the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Over 1 million Afghans were killed. Among the Afghans killed there were also 3 million Afghans maimed or wounded who were mostly citizens. There were also 1.2 million Afghans disabled consisting of Mujahideen as well as citizens.

Irrigation systems, crucial to an arid country like Afghanistan had been destroyed by aerial bombing and strafing. In the worst year of the war, 1985, according to a survey conducted by Swedish relief experts, well over half of all the farmers who remained in Afghanistan had their fields bombed, and over a 1/4 had their irrigation systems destroyed and their livestock shot by Soviet or Afghan Communist troops.

The population of Afghanistan's second largest city, Kandahar, had been reduced from 200,000 before the war to no more than 25,000 inhabitants, following a months-long campaign carpet bombing and bulldozing by the Soviets in 1987.

Land mines had killed 25,000 Afghans during the war and another 10-15 million land mines, most planted by Soviets and the Afghan government sources, were left scattered throughout the countryside to kill and maim.

The US decided not to help with reconstruction of the country and instead the US handed over the interests of the country to its allies: Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. Pakistan quickly took advantage of their new charitable opportunity and forged relations with warlords and later the Taliban to secure trade interests and routes.

A more little history of the war