Charlie Wilson's War: the book and the film

I have now read and seen Charlie Wilson' War. The book (by George Crille) is fantastic. The film is less so; although I can understand how difficult it was to translate a five hundred page epic into a film.

In this review, I'd like to concentrate on the book. For those interested in the film, I'd recommend it but only after reading the book first, as I felt the film was simplistic.

For one thing, it somewhat exaggerates the Russian atrocities, and does not explain why station chief Howard Hart did not want to give American weapons to the Afghan fighters.

Charlie Wilson's War is the story of Congressman Charlie Wilson and Gust Avrakotos from America's CIA, who were furious at the failure of their country to aid the mujahudeen, Afghanistan rebels fighting the Soviet Red Army, and were part of Operation Cyclone, which led to the retreat of Russian soliders.

Wilson and Avrakotos, along with their allies, manage to convince Congress to increase the aid budget for the rebels and arm them with assault rifles, machine guns and anti-aircraft guns transported to them on mules (which some rebels ended up having sex with, according to George Crille).

By May 1988, the tide had turned and the Russians withdrew from Afghanistan, with 28,000 of their soliders killed as opposed to 1 million dead Afghan fighters. Wilson credits his actions with having hastened the end of Communism.

However, at the end of Charlie Wilson's War George Crille debates if the arming of the rebel Afghan tribes could have contributed to the modern day battles against Islamic fundamentalism.

The book switches between Charlie Wilson and Gust Avrakotos as the main focus in many of the chapters, which can be confusing.

Charlie Wilson's War is also the subject of Guns for the Afghan Rebels by the wonderful Angelic Upstarts: "Guns for the Afghan Rebels/And the rest the rest they've got to label/The hammer and sickle seems so fickle/When the tanks are rolling in", and was part of Washington Bullets by the Clash, another band that I love: "'N' if you can find a Afghan rebel/That the Moscow bullets missed/Ask him what he thinks of voting Communist."