Friday, February 3, 2012
Charlie Wilson's War. Islam the new communism?
Charlie Wilson's War is not a date movie. I've always been a great fan of Tom Hanks, Forrest Gump being a gauge for what I consider a good movie or not. However, he did not wow me in his role as Charlie Wilson. But none the less, this is not a movie review. As a story based on historical fact, it did. Charlie Wilson's War made me question American foreign policy. It made me question whether or not we provoked the events that took place on 9/11, which is a difficult concept to process. Was 9/11 inevitable? I was born at the tail end of the cold war, during the first Bush Administration, so communism has not had the verbal power it did back in 1991. Communism or the Soviet Union is little more to me than a punchline on Family Guy. The threat is archaic. I see no threat in China, even though they embody the ideas of Soviet Russia. I see no threat from Cuba. I don't know what it's like to hide under my desk during a fallout drill. I've play Black Ops though and found the concept mildly amusing. However, communism is not a laughing matter when it comes to talking to my parents. I mentioned communism the other day when filling out a voter's registration and my mother warned me, "You better stop, they blacklist people and I'm not going down because of you." Islamism provokes fear in me and is a real . Is this all a product of Charlie Wilson? What's next?
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Not having seen it myself I can only speak from the trailer and the description. I think a movie like this stands as a testament to the overall ineptitude of the inner workings of our government. Taking the trailer at face value, it's baffling that one man in an important position can finance an entire war without anybody else noticing before it's too late to have somebody who actually knows what they're doing look over what's going on. It's also a bit of a cliche now, but there has been a serious lack of foresight put into thought by these government officials.
ReplyDeleteNick, while it's a good idea to be skeptical of power, I'd watch the film and/or read the movie before making any leaps of judgement about the ineptitude of government. The U.S. had very specific reasons for getting involved in Afghanistan (another site in the Cold War), and Charlie Wilson just made it easier to make that happen.
ReplyDeleteI have seen Charlie Wilson’s war. Charlie starts out as unimportant, or one who doesn’t care terribly too much about his position. Hence, the use of “unimportant,” but he makes himself important and drive the armament of Afghans to fight the Russians off. Specifically using the Stinger, a lock-on missile used to combat the “Hind and Havoc,” helicopters.
ReplyDeleteThis is a simple case of short-termism. Something that was better for some in the beginning but worse off in the end. This could be looked at from multiple point-of-views. Yes, it could have definitely been a catalyst for the 9/11 attacks. Our actions gave many the “Underdog,” mindset in the middle-east. Assisting in the defeat of the Russians was to bring communism to a halt, which in essence it did help with some political work of the Reagan Administration.
Hopefully this is comment stayed on task I can stray a little sometimes.