This article talks about the arming of the Mujahideen in Afghanistan by the CIA and their use as pawns in the cold war. This is now celebrated in Tom Hanks' new movie Charlie Wilson's War. The plan was to give the USSR it's own Vietnam which sounds like a great idea and apparently damaged the USSR significantly. Of course it's not so much fun for those playing the role of the Vietnamese. Despite receiving training and funding, they weren't too happy to be used in this way and to have their country fucked over. They went on to form Al Qaeda and bomb US embassies and barracks in several locations around the world and finally the World Trade Centre. Doh!
This is described by Charlie Wilson, in the book of the same title, as "And then we fucked up the endgame.", something of an understatement I would have thought.
The film apparently skips all this nastiness because apparently Tom Hanks "just can't deal with this 9/11 thing" (second page). This despite Wilson appearing on Fox News after 9/11 and saying "This was as much my fault as anybody's." (first page of that link).
I'm probably not going to get to see the movie anyway...
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