Why isn't Charlie Wilson in Congress anymore?

[proud2BlibKansan]

We just went and saw Charlie Wilson's War. It is a great movie. Really neat story.

So I came home and looked up Charlie Wilson on Wikipedia. It doesn't say why he isn't in Congress anymore. I heard that he was affected by Tom DeLay's redistricting of Texas. Is that why he is no longer in office?

We need more congressmen like Charlie Wilson. He saw a problem and he went and fixed it. It is amazing how the story evolves.

Go see this movie. It's how Congress needs to be.

So what happened? Why is he no longer in Congress?

[ContraBass Black]

1. Are you serious?

Those people he armed became the Taliban. We're at war with them, and they're shooting our missiles back at us.

[liberalnurse]

4. The enemy then was Russia..........

What a culture does with their "new beginning" is not up to us. I doubt that the early Taliban was the fundamentalist crazies we have today.

[pitohui]

7. you doubt it, do you? well read up on it a little more

the taliban was exactly the fundy crazies we have today, hence their opposition to the "godless" commies of russia

jeebus please us!

[JI7]

15. they were the same crazies then as they are now

that's why they pushed the whole evil godless commies thing to get their support.

[proud2BlibKansan]

17. That's right; they aren't

[proud2BlibKansan]

16. He armed the Afghans

The Taliban came in afterwards.

And no, I am not crazy.

[ProSense]

20. The Taliban are Afghans

Mullah Omar is their leader

[proud2BlibKansan]

22. They weren't the insane people they eventually became

when they were fighting the Soviet occupiers.

[pitohui]

2. i hate to say it, but ever hear of a little thing like 911?

what charlie wilson did was stupid and in the long and wandering scheme of things ultimately led to 3,000 people being killed whilst minding their own business on a sunny tuesday morning

democrats and republicans alike made many stupid mistakes in the interests of "let's fuck with the commies," arming random creeps in afghanistan who hate women and western values and who will always hate women and western values is just one of the most egregious

don't know, don't care why he isn't in office, the world would be a better place if he'd never been in office

[ContraBass Black]

3. We're doing it now to "fight the terrorists," arming and training people

In the Middle East, Africa, and South America in guerrilla war tactics and selling them weapons. We even back and provide material support to the Somalis responsible for the "Blackhawk Down" incident.

[pitohui]

8. i know, it just makes me put head in hand and cry

do we never learn, apparently not

[earth mom]

23. You need to figure out who the REAL TERRORISTS are. And it's not the Taliban.

Or Al Qaeda.

FYI-they are the scapegoats for the REAL TERRORISTS.

:eyes:

[SharonRB]

5. I saw it the other night

Great movie. I came home and looked him up on Wikipedia, too.

[yourout]

10. Is that Randi Rhodes with you?

She definatly could "bounce her boobies"

[SharonRB]

13. Sure is!

[proud2BlibKansan]

19. So do you think he was a bad guy?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

6. You've got to be kidding.

Wilson was an interesting character (he's still alive, apparently retired), but not a particularly admirable one. He was as rabid an anti-Communist as any Republican at the time; and not only did he assist the Mujahedin, which became the Taliban, he also supported the Nicaraguan dictator Somoza.

[Thothmes]

24. Actually

the Mujahedin was made up of many different groups, one of which was the Taliban. The Taliban's importance in Afgan political affairs started after the Soviets withdrew from the country.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

26. That's true. But if it hadn't been for CIA/Wilson arming the Mujehedin,

the faction that later became the Taliban (after about 1996, I think) wouldn't have been able to seize power as they did. One could argue (and Wilson did) that arming the Mujehedin caused the USSR to get bogged down in Afghanistan, which eventually led to its dissolution. But there was an awful lot of blowback, including the rise of Al Qaeda.

[Thothmes]

29. I think you are correct, however

That was not going to happen. This is the way the cold war was played out. For 50 years, the US and the USSR spared with each other using a variety of other countries as the boxing gloves. During the Korean war, Soviet Migs, Soviet pilots, Soviet t-34s. During Viet Nam, suspect most of the AK 47s in the hands of VC & NVA soldiers were manufactured at the Tula Arsenal. We provided equipment/money to the Afghan resistance, several African countries,
Some in Asia, and South America. If it wasn't Wilson, it would have been someone else. Damed the long term consequences, we had an opportunity to stick it to the Soviet Union and we used it. Not saying that this desirable or good, only that it was going to happen one way or another.

[doc03]

9. Well actually Charlie Wilson is, different one though

Ohio 6th District.

[ingac70]

11. Charlie Wilson helped create Al Qaeda...

We don't need any more trash like him.

[BlueManDude]

12. From what I recall Wilson was one of those Dems that always voted with Reagan

whether it was tax cuts or foreign policy.

[Disturbed]

14. I am halfway through the book. I get the feeling the the movie

is a grand distortion of the actual events. Rep. Wilson was a real mixed bag of political contradictions. The CIA, at the time, considered him to be a hero. Some people still think that he was & some consider him to be a fool. I suspect that he was a bit of both.

[proud2BlibKansan]

18. What I found interesting

was he saw a problem and tackled it. I admire that.

[Jane Austin]

21. I saw Charlie and his wife last summer.

They came to a dinner connected with my mother's funeral.

He seemed hale and hearty still tall as all get out, no gray to speak of and his cheeks were pink.

[burrowowl]

25. Please read this Alternet article on Charlie Wilson and

the movie. He along with the CIA backed the people responsible for 9/11 and not

"As it so happens, Massoud did not receive any financial support from the Saudis, because they mistakenly thought he was a Shia Muslim. He was Sunni. Nevertheless, he was not altogether displeased with the situation, because it meant he didn't have to deal with the Arab jihadis. This is one of several reasons why, had we actually supported Massoud and not Hekmatyar, there would have been no 9/11. To be sure, there were quite a few people during the 1980s, including several U.S. Senators and various journalists, trying to warn Wilson and the CIA that the consequences of supporting Hekmatyar would be globally catastrophic. In response the CIA would always throw up its hands, exclaiming, 'We have no control over the distribution. It's all handled by Pakistan, and the Pakistanis liked Massoud even less than the Saudis."

1. The Massoud "inaccuracy" was included because Tom Hanks "just can't deal with this 9/11 thing"; and because Wilson and Joanne Herring (played by Julia Roberts in the movie) threatened legal action after reading an earlier, more honest, draft of the screenplay by Aaron Sorkin. Herring was Pakistan's honorary consul to the United States in the 1980s, and as such, enlisted Wilson into supporting the cause of the Afghans. Neither Wilson nor Herring wants history to remember them for their contribution to the events that culminated in 9/11.

http://www.alternet.org/stories/71286/?page=2

[proud2BlibKansan]

27. Yes thanks for posting that

I don't see how anyone could have predicted the rise of the taliban and al qaeda.

What I liked about the story was the fact that a congressman decided to solve a problem and did it. If all of our reps were like that, imagine what they could accomplish.

[burrowowl]

28. The way he did

9/11, war, etc.

[RFKHumphreyObama]

30. Charlie Wilson retired in '97'

So he wouldn't have been impacted by Delay's gerrymandering. He was probably one of those who retired in the aftermath of the Republican Revolution knowing that he'd had a good run in the majority party

[cmkramer]

32. How would he have voted on Iraq if he were still in office?

Or on any of the issues that came up after 9/11.

[formerrepuke]

31. In hindsight, Afghanistan would have been (and probably was) better off as a Soviet satellite-

the 'godless' Soviets at least would have maintained a completely secular government -with some degree of gender equality- which is what Afghanistan needs (and will probably never get). Hard to imagine the Soviets would end up looking like the better option. But, since the USSR was in its declining years... it probably wouldn't have mattered much in the long run.

[MadHound]

33. Charlie Wilson is part of the problem

One of the last great cowboys of the Cold War era, Charlie had no compunction about helping out the Afghans militarily against Russia. He had no problem sacrificing their country and their population in a US proxy war against Russia. However when the Afghans pushed the Russians out of their devastated country, where was Wilson or the Reagan/Bush administrations? Oh, yeah, back at that hot tub congratulating themselves on whuppin' the Reds, leaving the Afghans to rebuild their country on their own. A few million or billion as a rebuilding fund for the country the just trounced the USSR for us would have been proper, needed, appreciated, and probably prevented the rise of anti-US sentiments that led directly to 911.

But rather than help out our ally, we hung them out to dry. Blowback's a bitch, especially when you could have spent a little money and prevented it.