Slog

News & Arts

Line Out

Music & the City
at Night

« Making an Honest Women of Her | The Politics of Headscarves »

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Death Um, Since No One Has Mentioned it, Charlie Wilson Died Yesterday

Posted by Grant Brissey on Thu, Feb 11, 2010 at 9:46 AM

That same Charlie Wilson who, as a member of the House Appropriations Committee in the 1980s, helped secure billions of dollars for Afghanistan rebels to fight the Soviet Union. The same Charlie Wilson glowingly portrayed by Tom Hanks in 2007's Charlie Wilson's War. He died of cardiac arrest and was 76.

Comments (8) RSS

Oldest First Unregistered On Registered On Add a comment

Yawn.

Posted by Baconcat on February 11, 2010 at 10:07 AM

Anyone who aided in the blowing up of soviet soldiers during the Cold War is my kind of people.

But everyone knows that it was John Rambo that won that war.

Posted by Rotten666 on February 11, 2010 at 10:19 AM

I was wondering if Slog was gonna mention this.. Yeah, sad to see the old guy go. He was one of the good ones, an increasingly rare breed in (the other) Washington....

Posted by merry on February 11, 2010 at 11:58 AM

Let this be a warning kids: The hedonistic, playboy lifestyle, promulgated by people like the late Congressman Wilson WILL kill you in the end!

Posted by COMTE

on February 11, 2010 at 12:32 PM

Ah, but what a way to go. . . .

Posted by Fifty-Two-Eighty

on February 11, 2010 at 12:43 PM

Charlie Wilson was a "hero" alright, for blood-thirsty anti-American fundamentalists. Through the 1980s, Wilson appropriated $3.5 billion to help Afghans fight the Soviets but the majority of it went to Pakistani factions while 40% went to a lunatic warlord named Gulbaddin Hekmatyar, known for killing more mujahiddin allies than soviets. So many that he was suspected of being a Soviet agent, though it was more likely he was supported by the Pakistan government to destabilize Afghanistan. Hekmatyar also received funding from Saudis including Osama Bin Laden.
This is partly why shortly after 9/11 during a televised interview Charlie Wilson said "This was as much my fault as anybody's."

Posted by Rot in Hell Charlie Wilson on February 11, 2010 at 2:23 PM

Well said.

Charlie Wilson helped invent the concept of "blowback", whereby all the monsters we created to "blow up soviets" ended up turning their sights on us.

Back in the 80's, Reagan, Wilson and those Heritage Foundation creeps referred to Osama as a "freedom fighter." Now, those same neo-con critters use the same word - "freedom" - to defend more recent invasions and occupations.

It's a circle which will never end - unless right wingers start installing brains in their heads.

Posted by carlson on February 11, 2010 at 2:33 PM

If I were an Afghan woman I would be celebrating. Thanks to fucks like Charlie Wilson, things got worse for women in Afghanistan not better. Fuck him. For all the women who were victims of the Taliban, fuck him again. He should have kept his nose out of the Soviet’s business; too bad if men were being oppressed. They got what they gave. It was not Charlie Wilson's place to get involved and arm such fucking pricks. Fuck him again.

Posted by curtisp on February 11, 2010 at 9:53 PM