Charlie Wilson's Peace

[lame54]

http://blog.buzzflash.com/alerts/699

The man whose adopted mission to save Afghanistan from the Soviet incursion in the 1980s spawned the notion of "Afghan freedom fighters," a book and a Hollywood movie now says we need to get the hell out of Dodge.

In an interview with the Pennsylvania paper, Wilson said he advocates a "calculated withdrawal" of American troops from the country, "rather than lose a lot of soldiers and treasure."

On the eighth anniversary of the beginning of the war in Afghanistan and during the heated debate in Washington over whether President Obama should commit more American troops to the region, Wilson's words are incredibly significant. While many have argued recently that the war is unwinnable because Afghanistan is one of the most indomitable countries on the planet, hearing a passionate defender of the Afghan peoples' right to self-govern say we should pull out is starkly different from typical anti-war sentiment.

Wilson's reasoning is that we cannot beat the people we are fighting in Afghanistan:

"I'd rather take on a chain saw," Mr. Wilson said. "They're the world's best foot soldiers, best warriors. And they're fearless.

"They're fearless, and they've got nothing to lose. And they have a pretty serious hatred for those who try to occupy their country."

The thing is, he should know. After using his seat on the House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense to funnel funding through the CIA to supply Soviet-made weaponry to the mujahideen, who fought alongside Osama bin Laden among others, both the lawmaker and the country rejoiced in withdrawal of Soviet troops from the country in 1989.

But Wilson doesn't let himself or his government off the hook for their collective lack of investment in nation-building at the time. According to the article, Wilson credits the failure to set up Afghanistan with an adequate governing body as the reason for the 9/11 attacks and the past eight years of brutal fighting coalition troops have seen there:

"We (screwed) up the end game," Mr. Wilson said. "It would have been very easy and done for a minuscule amount of money. We should have done the basic things for a backward country that's trying to come out of (a war) and have a reasonable hope of economic success."

[Warpy]

1. Daddy Bush fouled up, bigtime

by simply pulling out and leaving them all in a ruined country, twisting in the wind, with no one to fill the power vacuum but a bunch of warlords.

It's just another reason the GOP should never again gain control of the White House until every last neocon is dead.

[TexasObserver]

2. Recommend

[MissMarple]

3. Thank you, Charlie Wilson.

The GOP wants us to throw our weight around, bully other countries, and generally act like immature jerks. They haven't had good luck with that. And neither will we, especially in Afghanistan. The neocons are cowards with delusions of grandeur, who send others out on a fatally flawed "mission", and shrug it off when it becomes a disaster.

[Libertas1776]

4. At least he

admits that he and everyone else involved screwed the pooch, despite the reluctance of other people...oh say a certain one term president, to admit their fuck up.

[laughingliberal]

5. I believe Wilson pushed for the funds for some nation building at the time but was turned down nt

[Libertas1776]

6. I believe you're right

Something like a measly million dollars to fund education and build infrastructure, compared to the billions they spent on the covert operation, and they turned him down. Now look at where we are.