Watched this terrific and informative “entertainment” with Dave and Lisa Adlard. For a Hollywood movie, I think it captures the flavour of how things get really done in politics.

Charlie Wilson’s War is a 2007 biographical drama film based on the true story of Democratic Texas Congressman Charlie Wilson, who conspired with a “bare knuckle attitude” CIA operative named Gust Avrakotos to launch an operation to help the Afghan mujahideen resist and ultimately defeat the Soviet Union’s military occupation of the nation.

The film is adapted from George Crile’s 2003 book Charlie Wilson’s War: The Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History.

It is directed by Mike Nichols, written by Aaron Sorkin, and stars Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, and Ned Beatty. It was nominated for five Golden Globe Awards, including “Best Motion Picture”, but did not win in any category. Phillip Seymour Hoffman was nominated for an Academy Award for “Best Supporting Actor,” but did not win.

Hoffman was fantastic, as usual.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

To oversimplify the plot, it’s the story of how the USA eventually and reluctantly delivered Stinger missiles into the hands of illiterate tribesmen. That weapon turned the tide in the campaign against the brutal invading Soviet Army.

George Crile, author of … the book on which the film is based, wrote that the mujahideen’s victory in Afghanistan ultimately opened a power vacuum for bin Laden: “By the end of 1993, in Afghanistan itself there were no roads, no schools, just a destroyed country — and the United States was washing its hands of any responsibility. It was in this vacuum that the Taliban and Osama bin Laden would emerge as the dominant players. It is ironic that a man who had almost nothing to do with the victory over the Red Army, Osama bin Laden, would come to personify the power of the jihad.” …

Wikipedia