In his song “Basta Ya” (It’s enough), Atahualpa Yupanqui, the world famous Argentine songwriter sings: ”Who has won the war in the mountains of Vietnam? The Guerrilla in his land and Yankees in cinema.” Yupanqui’s song reflects the reality of the Hollywood movie Charlie Wilson’s War which is a feel-good production aiming to whitewash the realities of the past and the present.
The movie is certainly based on a true story, but there is very little reality that has not been distorted in the scenario presented, perhaps other than the true face of corruption in the US Congress and its politicians.
For starters, the film depicts Pakistan’s former dictator General Zia Al-Haq, who murdered the country’s president, Benazir Bhutto’s father, Zulfaqar Ali Bhutto, as an anti-Communist hero dedicated to helping the poor peasants of Afghanistan. This would be stretching the facts quite a bit. In reality, the General was an American-trained dictator whose acts of brutality did not spare even his own fellow countrymen. To Zia, the Afghans were nothing but a tool in his jihad against the Soviet presence in Afghanistan.
The hero of the movie, Congressman Charles Wilson, as another example of distortions, is shown to be deeply affected by his first visit to an Afghan refugee camp inside Pakistan. In the scene, the sight of mutilated bodies of the victims of the war with the Soviets almost brings tears to Wilson’s eyes. This is such a hypocritical scene as there is no mention, that Mr. Wilson himself (and many other US politicians, for that matter) were responsible for torture, mutilation, and murder of thousands of women and children in other trouble spots in the world, such as Nicaragua (at the hands of the US-funded and trained Contra terrorists), Angola (at the hands of UNITA assassins funded by the CIA and the Apartheid regime of South Africa), El Salvador (at the hands of US-sponsored death squads who wouldn’t even spare Jesuit priests and nuns), Guatemala, etc.
There is no mention in the movie that the same Afghan Mujahedeen forces that were armed against the Soviets by the CIA and called “freedom-fighters” and likened to America’s forefathers by Ronald Reagan, later organized into so-called terrorist groups of the Taliban, the Northern Alliance warlords (who are part of the present Afghan government), and other militias. I think the movie consciously attempts to hide that connection. When the very same movie depicts US politicians who do not seem to know the difference between Pakistan and Afghanistan, do you think ordinary viewers will be able to put two and two together? I rather doubt that.
Take a closer look. The costumes of the Afghans in the camp have been designed to make them look slightly different than the “terrorist” Taliban; I think purposely so. Some scenes show a few men with shaved faces. Proper and devout Moslem men do not usually shave their faces that closely, and none of the women in the camp seem to be wearing the traditional face-covering burqa which is quite common in Afghanistan. Is that so we would not be reminded of the Taliban or Al-Qaeda while watching scenes of our victory against the Soviets?
You can even notice the difference in looks and features if you compare the staged camp scenes with the actual news clips in the same movie.
There is no mention of the Afghan Arabs or the madrasas (religious schools) in the film. The truth is that the war against the Soviets was conducted with the financial backing of the Saudi royal family and Saudi jihadists, such as Osama bin Ladin and his followers who are not recalled in the movie at all. The madrasas (or religious schools) were setup to mobilize the villagers and provide ideological justification for the anti-Soviet crusade.
This war was made possible with the full participation of the Pakistani Intelligence Services (ISI) that provided logistics and training to the Afghans who, by the way, in contrast to the film’s distortions, were not ordinary peasants but warlords and feudals who conscripted villagers and peasants in the interest of the United States and their own fundamentalist jihadist goals.
In contrast to the feel-good theme of this fairy tale, the reality on the ground is that America is sinking deeper and deeper in Afghanistan and Iraq today. The Afghan and Iraqi resistance are only fighting to drive out the occupation. They are not the ones that are bleeding the country to death. The real enemy of America resides in the White House and walks the halls of the US Congress. Most probably, the next president of the United States, a Democrat or a Republican will continue the bloodletting and avoid making waves. Instead of indulging in the pleasures of Charles Wilson’s triumphs, we need to have our voices heard.