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Charlie Wilson, RIP - 2/10/2010 5:05:34 PM   
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quote:

Charlie Wilson, the former congressman from Texas whose funding of Afghanistan's resistance to the Soviet Union was chronicled in the movie and book "Charlie Wilson's War," died Wednesday. He was 76.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35334911/ns/politics

He was my congressman, and I liked him. He strived to help people here, and though he had faults, like all of us (especially politicians), I believe he was a decent man.

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RE: Charlie Wilson, RIP - 2/10/2010 5:16:24 PM   
Thadius


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Status: offline 		My thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends. Seemed like a decent guy especially with his efforts during the cold war.

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RE: Charlie Wilson, RIP - 2/10/2010 5:30:25 PM   
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Status: offline 		He was, Thadius. He helped my dad get disability, after his stroke.

The guy we have now? I've seen him around here once, maybe twice. Wilson was here on a regular basis. He made it a point to know the people he served, and he was always accesible (spelling?).

He also liked to drink, and he loved the ladies

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RE: Charlie Wilson, RIP - 2/10/2010 5:36:44 PM   
zephyroftheNorth


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Status: offline 		Rest in peace, Mr. Wilson.

Level, was he as he was portrayed in the movie? If so you were lucky to have him as your congressman

zeph


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RE: Charlie Wilson, RIP - 2/10/2010 5:43:43 PM   
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Status: offline 		zeph, I've yet to see it; if Hanks portrayed him as a hard drinking, skirt chasing, dedicated public servant, then yes. How would you describe the way he was done in the film?

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RE: Charlie Wilson, RIP - 2/10/2010 6:44:57 PM   
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Status: offline 		Pretty much as you describe. It was damn fine movie.

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RE: Charlie Wilson, RIP - 2/10/2010 9:58:27 PM   
GreedyTop


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Status: offline 		Great movie.  Sorry to hear of his passing.

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RE: Charlie Wilson, RIP - 2/11/2010 6:25:34 AM   
pahunkboy


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Status: offline 		I never heard of him.

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RE: Charlie Wilson, RIP - 2/11/2010 9:04:48 AM   
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quote:

ORIGINAL: pahunkboy

I never heard of him.


I guess he just wasn't involved in the right conspiracies!

Anyone who's interested in learning more about "Good Time Charlie" should keep an eye on the History Channel over the next week or so. They had a really interesting 2-hour program on him a couple of years ago, and with his death there's a pretty good chance they'll shift their programming to run it again. They do that from time to time. I think it's called "The True Story of Charlie Wilson." Good program, definitely worth a look for anyone interested in that episode in American history.


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RE: Charlie Wilson, RIP - 2/11/2010 9:06:15 AM   
thompsonx


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Status: offline 		The piece of shit started a fucking war for fucks sake.
The fucking war he started led us straight to where we are now.
I am glad the fuckhead is dead

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RE: Charlie Wilson, RIP - 2/11/2010 9:11:56 AM   
ThatDamnedPanda


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Status: offline 		The History Channel documentary must have been incomplete, then. It didn't mention him starting any wars.

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RE: Charlie Wilson, RIP - 2/11/2010 9:14:38 AM   
Thadius


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quote:

ORIGINAL: ThatDamnedPanda

The History Channel documentary must have been incomplete, then. It didn't mention him starting any wars.

I think he is refering to the arming of the Mujahideen, and prolonging the fight long enough that the Soviets pulled out. This leaving the power vacuum, that gave the Taliban and other radicals a place to grow in power etc...

I could be wrong.

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RE: Charlie Wilson, RIP - 2/11/2010 9:16:30 AM   
SL4V3M4YB3


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Status: offline 		The movie said he funded the insurgency against the Russian's in terms of weapons supplies etc. It was kind of funny the way the Russian's were portrayed as going around in their helicopter gunships decimating whole villages. Apparently Mr Wilson warned of the consequences of just leaving after the end of the war i.e. that it could lead to history repeating but nobody was interested anymore since the Russians had been defeated.

< Message edited by SL4V3M4YB3 -- 2/11/2010 9:18:27 AM >

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RE: Charlie Wilson, RIP - 2/11/2010 9:17:24 AM   
thompsonx


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quote:

ORIGINAL: Thadius


quote:

ORIGINAL: ThatDamnedPanda

The History Channel documentary must have been incomplete, then. It didn't mention him starting any wars.

I think he is refering to the arming of the Mujahideen, and prolonging the fight long enough that the Soviets pulled out. This leaving the power vacuum, that gave the Taliban and other radicals a place to grow in power etc...

I could be wrong.


You could be,but you are not.

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RE: Charlie Wilson, RIP - 2/11/2010 9:38:10 AM   
ThatDamnedPanda


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Status: offline 		History's full of examples of people doing something that was absolutely the right thing at the time, but that turned out badly later. This would be one of them. The Russians slaughtered upwards of a million Afghans during the war that Brezhnev started, mutilated millions more, and drove many millions more than that from their homes. I have no problem with Wilson's effort to help those people defend themselves. What that man did was help end a war, not begin one. Does anyone really think Muslim extremism would never have happened if we hadn't armed the Muj? Looking back at history, it's hard to find more than a handful of instances where ending one war didn't start another. Al Qaeada was born the day the Soviets crossed the border; it just wasn't until years later that it became what we see today.




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RE: Charlie Wilson, RIP - 2/11/2010 9:48:25 AM   
ThatDamnedPanda


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quote:

ORIGINAL: SL4V3M4YB3

The movie said he funded the insurgency against the Russian's in terms of weapons supplies etc. It was kind of funny the way the Russian's were portrayed as going around in their helicopter gunships decimating whole villages. Apparently Mr Wilson warned of the consequences of just leaving after the end of the war i.e. that it could lead to history repeating but nobody was interested anymore since the Russians had been defeated.


I don't know if Wilson ever really foresaw the way things actually turned out, although the movie (filmed several years after 9/11) did try to suggest that. I do know that he understood from a moral and a practical perspective the importance of not walking away from the Afghan people and leaving them in a vacuum, and was not listened to, but I'm not sure if he ever went on record as predicting the Islamic fundamentalist terrorist movement we see today. Somehow I doubt that he did, or he probably would have  made a point of drawing that to our attention over the last few years.


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RE: Charlie Wilson, RIP - 2/11/2010 10:10:26 AM   
ThatDamnedPanda


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quote:

ORIGINAL: SL4V3M4YB3

The movie said he funded the insurgency against the Russian's in terms of weapons supplies etc. It was kind of funny the way the Russian's were portrayed as going around in their helicopter gunships decimating whole villages. Apparently Mr Wilson warned of the consequences of just leaving after the end of the war i.e. that it could lead to history repeating but nobody was interested anymore since the Russians had been defeated.


Actually, as an afterthought... since I just noticed that nobody else mentioned it in this thread, and since you're not from America and may not be fully aware of American history during that  period... I should point out that the movie was historically inaccurate in it's portrayal of Wilson as being the man responsible for the covert arming of the Muj. He is responsible for the exponential expansion of the  program, but it actually began at least a year and a half  before he ever heard of it.

According to Jimmy Carter's National Security Advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski, the funding of the Islamic "freedom fighters" (as they were called then) actually began before the Soviets even invaded - in fact, if I recall correctly, he later said that it was begun in the summer of 1979 as part of a secret strategy to draw the Soviets into invading Afghanistan in the first place. They were hoping to create a Soviet Vietnam, and it worked. But it is correct to say that Wilson was instrumental in turning what had been a small operation into the juggernaut that ultimately broke the back of the Soviet Union. 

< Message edited by ThatDamnedPanda -- 2/11/2010 10:12:19 AM >

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RE: Charlie Wilson, RIP - 2/11/2010 10:16:31 AM   
SL4V3M4YB3


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Status: offline 		To be honest I found it hard to concentrate beyond that of the hot tub scene and this was at the start.

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RE: Charlie Wilson, RIP - 2/11/2010 11:28:46 AM   
thompsonx


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quote:

ORIGINAL: ThatDamnedPanda

History's full of examples of people doing something that was absolutely the right thing at the time, but that turned out badly later. This would be one of them. The Russians slaughtered upwards of a million Afghans during the war that Brezhnev started, mutilated millions more, and drove many millions more than that from their homes. I have no problem with Wilson's effort to help those people defend themselves. What that man did was help end a war, not begin one. Does anyone really think Muslim extremism would never have happened if we hadn't armed the Muj? Looking back at history, it's hard to find more than a handful of instances where ending one war didn't start another. Al Qaeada was born the day the Soviets crossed the border; it just wasn't until years later that it became what we see today.




Why exactly was/is it our business to poke our nose into shit that is non of our business?
We were there poke our finger in "Ivans" eye as he had done to us in Viet nam.
We were not there to help anyone. If we were we would have stayed and helped them rebuild their country.

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RE: Charlie Wilson, RIP - 2/11/2010 6:03:57 PM   
Brain


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Status: offline 		Interesting, so this is the guy that gave us Bin Laden, I guess that'll mean he makes the history books. May he RIP even if we may not for some time.

quote:

ORIGINAL: thompsonx


quote:

ORIGINAL: Thadius


quote:

ORIGINAL: ThatDamnedPanda

The History Channel documentary must have been incomplete, then. It didn't mention him starting any wars.

I think he is refering to the arming of the Mujahideen, and prolonging the fight long enough that the Soviets pulled out. This leaving the power vacuum, that gave the Taliban and other radicals a place to grow in power etc...

I could be wrong.


You could be,but you are not.


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Profile   Post #: 20
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