The American Spectator

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Ronald Reagan's War

1.8.08 @ 12:01AM

DON'T FORGET THE GIPPER
Re: James Bowman's Charlie Wilson's War:

Mr. Bowman gets a different moral from the lesson of this enjoyable film than I get. Perhaps even the author of the film did not realize what message the film gives: We abandoned the peace. The result was the rise of radical Islamists.

Had we stayed and helped the reorganization, perhaps a friendly democratic government would have emerged. There are powerful forces that want to abandon the peace in Iraq. If we abandon Iraq, will a radical anti-USA government emerge? Is the Democratic Party demanding we repeat the mistakes made at the end of Charlie Wilson's War?
-- David Moshinsky

I saw and enjoyed this movie over the weekend, although it is deliberately deceptive in many instances.

You have to pay close attention to pick up on the subliminal political messages.

First, the movie was produced by Rob Reiner (aka Meathead) who is the prince of left-wing politics in Hollywood and makes Barbra Streisand seem centrist.

Second, the movie erroneously portrays John Murtha as "clean as my grandmother's kitchen floor" with respect to the Abscam sting. Listening to Murtha's own recorded words to undercover FBI agents doesn't leave one with that conclusion, by a long shot.

Third, the movie takes several gratuitous swipes at Rudy Giuliani, the timing of which is propitious considering the fact the Reiner released the movie right before the Iowa's caucuses and the New Hampshire primary.

Fourth, the movie takes a similar swipe at President Reagan, allegedly wondering whether we were still engaged in helping the Afghans in their efforts against the Soviets at a particular point in time.

Lastly, the movie focuses more on Wilson and less on Joanne King Herring (the Houston socialite) who was the real instigator of getting Wilson's attention on the subject matter. The facts that the movie ignores altogether are that Herring is an admitted conservative and that, except for Wilson, she lived her life in almost exclusively Republican circles.

So, if you look closely at the movie, you get the underlying message: Democrat -- good, Republicans -- bad.

It's also funny that liberals never refer to our efforts in backing the Afghans in their war against the Soviets when they insist that it was the Reagan Administration who initially armed OBL in Afghanistan. It's certainly not Charlie Wilson's War then.
-- Chris Hall

"Or, in Charlie's words which end the film: 'These things happened. They were glorious, and we changed the world...And then we f*****-up the endgame.' The movie offers no further elaboration on this statement..."

Actually lots of us "got the message" that with an ounce or two of "follow through" (build the schools, help "police" up the insurgency that followed), we might not have had to go back in officially the next time. That the United States Federal Government, and in particular many of our elected representatives have extreme short attention spans.

No wonder "our" foreign policy is so schizophrenic. My husband and I saw this over the holidays, at a theater near the "federal ghetto" near BWI airport. So maybe the audience was "biased" but we all cheered together when the "hinds" were shot!

Letter to the Editor

topics:
Taxes, Foreign Policy, Education, Barack Obama, Islam, Hollywood, Law, Military, Iraq, Pakistan, NATO, Africa, Conservatism, Oil