Tuesday, December 02, 2008

Charlie Wilson's War

Watched Charlie Wilson's War last night. I must admit that I initially had reservations in purchasing this DVD as I am not really into political drama. But since Tom Hanks is the main lead I thought I give it a try.

The movie is based on a book of the same title and it chronicles how Congressman Charlie Wilson supported the Mujaheedin in their fight against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan by convincing members of Congress in allocating money, funneled through the CIA, to purchase weapons.

All in all Congressman Wilson convinced the US Government is spending USD1 Billion in the fight against the Soviets.

I don't want to give too much details as it will spoil the movie for you, but what I found ironic is that the US Government did not hesitate in spending the USD1B in the war, but they refused to allocate even US1million in building schools and the necessary infrastructure to rebuild the country after the Soviets retreated.

The failure of the US Government in spending the money to rebuild Afghanistan indirectly resulted in the resurgence of militant Islamic groups and the rest as they say is history.

Anyway, I highly recommend the movie. Do watch it, buy the original DVD., you won't regret it.....else go to any torrent sites and download it hahaha.

P/S: To my dear wife, a Christmas present in the form of this book and "Inside the Delta Force" would be highly appreciated hahaha

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It is rather ironic that Afghanistan could have been better off with the Soviets in power. Women actually had more freedom. When you think that communists can give you a better life, you know it's bad!

Anyway, have you read Khaled Husseini's books: The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns? Really good.

william said...

nope i have not. just finished reading asian godfathers and currently reading 1421 the year china discovered the world...read vikram seth's travels through xinjiang and tibet a couple of months back....wonderful...