Charlie Wilson's War

published	2004 by Grove Press
binding	Paperback
isbn	0802141242 (isbn13: 9780802141248)
pages	560
description	Charlie Wilson's War was a publishing sensation and a New York Times, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times bestseller. In the early 1980s, a Hou...more [close] Charlie Wilson's War was a publishing sensation and a New York Times, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times bestseller. In the early 1980s, a Houston socialite turned the attention of maverick Texas congressman Charlie Wilson to the ragged band of Afghan "freedom fighters" who continued, despite overwhelming odds, to fight the Soviet invaders. Wilson, who sat on the all-powerful House Appropriations Committee, managed to procure hundreds of millions of dollars to support the mujahideen. The arms were secretly procured and distributed with the help of an out-of-favor CIA operative, Gust Avrokotos, whose working-class Greek-American background made him an anomaly among the Ivy League world of American spies. Avrakotos handpicked a staff of CIA outcasts to run his operation and, with their help, continually stretched the Agency's rules to the breaking point. Moving from the back rooms of the Capitol, to secret chambers at Langley, to arms-dealers' conventions, to the Khyber Pass, this book presents an astonishing chapter of our recent past, and the key to understanding what helped trigger the sudden collapse of the Soviet Union and ultimately led to the emergence of a brand-new foe in the form of radical Islam. [close]
date added	01-05-07 edit book

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Nate rated it:

02/08/08

bookshelves: good-books-i-have-read

Read in July, 2005

Crile's portrayal of the United States' invovlement in the Soviet-Afghan War is a spectacular story. Unfortunately though, and as the author repeatedly makes clear, it is a story of U.S. foreign policy that has not been given its due.

In reading this book, and also being mildly familar with the role that the CIA played in assisting the mujahedin, a few very substantial questions cannot help but to be asked. In telling such a fabulous story, the book actually raised more questions for me than...more Crile's portrayal of the United States' invovlement in the Soviet-Afghan War is a spectacular story. Unfortunately though, and as the author repeatedly makes clear, it is a story of U.S. foreign policy that has not been given its due.

In reading this book, and also being mildly familar with the role that the CIA played in assisting the mujahedin, a few very substantial questions cannot help but to be asked. In telling such a fabulous story, the book actually raised more questions for me than were answered.

Primarily, the most difficult conclusory question in my mind as I finished the book, and one in which Crile only briefly addressed, is the discombobulated irony as to the fact that the "freedom fighters" the U.S. so vehemently endorsed and supported for the decade long war are precisely the same faction of people that the U.S. is now seeking to elimminate in the War on Terror.

It is now evident that the motives of the Afghan Freedom Fighters were entirely divorced from the United States' intentions at the time. While both groups (the CIA and Afghans) collabortaed in driving the Soviets out, each groups' impetus for the collaboration could not have been more dissimilar. The assumed roles of both the Afghans and the U.S. during the 80's is similar to the roles that both the U.S. and Stalin's Russia assumed in teaming up against Hitler Germany. In each instance, subsequent to their collaborative victories, the former co-conspirators in driving out "evil" locked horns in an even more notorius battle. Summarily, it is amazing to me how the U.S. could work so intimately with the Afghans in driving out the Soviets but then turn their back in the early 90's on these people and see the country slip into even deeper chaos... worse yet, the chaos that gave rise to the Taliban and Osama bin Laden. This episode is another striking example of the failed idealistic foreign policy of the early to mid-ninties, one for which the U.S. and its allies are paying for now with their blood.

Ultimatley, the lesson of Charlie Wilson's War is eerily similar to the lessons of almost every U.S. intervention in the last century... it is imperatively critical that whenever and wherever the U.S. intervenes militarily, either overtly of covertly as in this case, an appropriate and effective exit strategy must be in place so as not to foster a politcal vacuum in which hostile tyrants assume control. Regardless of your attitude about the Iraqi War at its outset, this is why the role that the U.S. and its allies are playing in Iraq right now is so critical.

This book also serves a purpose for us today in evaluating the role that the U.S. intelligence apparatus is playing presently. After 9/11, the CIA and the entire intellignece community was raked over the coals for not fishing out the devastating al Qaeda plot. While some of the criticism was warranted as was made clear in the 9/11 Commission Report, the CIA recieves to little credit for their myriad of successes; of which the Afghan War against the Soviets is an example. Becasue of the nature of carrying out intelligence gathering and covert operations, it is impossible for the CIA and others to publicize their successes. At the same time however, when things go wrong, as they did in the Iran-Contra arms cover-up or the Bay of Pigs, such failures are devastatingly blown out of proportion by the Woodward / Bernstein era of controversy-laden and conspiracy-seeking journalism.

The intelligence apparatuses of the U.S. and its allies deserve a break. As was made evident by 9/11 and the transit bombs in Madrid and London, an enemy to freedom and liberalism looms everywhere like a secret combination waiting to come out of their hiding places. They are hellbent on destruction and murder in order to attain their desire for Western (also read Christian and Jewish) eradication. The intelligence community should not be allowed to flush these weasels out without impunity, but those engaged should be allowed to do their jobs in the most effective manner possible. As Crile's book points out, sometimes the effectiveness desired requires ingenuity and foresight. It also requires a nonconventional mindset and an attitude of sometimes bending but not breaking the rules. Charlie Wilson's role in implementing and then carrying out "his" war in Afghanistan utilized all of these charcateristics and thus was the reason he and all those involved were so successful. However, as I eluded to previously, their success was marked only by driving out the Soviets which contributed to the collapse of the "Evil Empire." The failure of Charlie Wilson's War was the inability to foresee the future dangerousness of some of those the U.S. was supporting, which dangerousness was brought about by failing to implement an effective after-war startegy which would have protected against the establishment of a radical Islamic government.

Ultimately, Crile's book is a remarkable story that has not and probably never will receive the attention it desreves. Furthermore, the story of Charlie Wilson's War has not received enough credit for dramatically contributing to the collapse of the Soviet Union. ...less

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