Sometimes, a politician can make a difference

So far pretty much ignored by the British political blogosphere – although that’s probably because it’s only out in cinemas here later today – the film Charlie Wilson's War bears close examination. Both for its tale of personal conviction in politics and for its reminder in this age of war in Afghanistan and Iraq  that interventionism is capable of yielding the most spectacular results.

For those who haven’t read the book of the same name, this true story recounts the tale of how a Democratic Congressman of dubious personal habits – the self-same Charlie Wilson – rises above a somewhat mediocre political existence in 1980 to champion the cause of the Afghan rebels fighting to defend their country from Soviet invasion.

Wilson had been motivated to act by seeing the humanitarian crisis caused by the Soviet action, with hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing the country. A lot of lobbying fellow Congressmen later, and with hundreds of millions of dollars of military assistance sent the Afghan rebels’ way as a consequence of his actions in the biggest US covert operation ever, the Soviets did of course end up being exhausted out of the country in 1989. A military and psychological blow the already ailing Communist regime was unable to contend with.

As the Guardian film blog commented at the time of the US launch, the film is also notable for countering the popular perception that  US support for the Afghan mujahideen was responsible for creating a Taliban regime that later turned on it through al-Qaeda. While Osama Bin-Laden was an anti-Soviet fighter, his extreme Islamists were but one small part of a patchwork quilt of support that helped drive the Soviets out. It wasn’t the Americans’ fault that the Taliban were able to eventually triumph over the other parts of that coalition.

Charlie Wilson believed that he could make a personal difference to aiding those fighting tyranny. As he put it."The US had nothing whatsoever to do with these people's decision to fight...But we'll be damned by history if we let them fight with stones." By pushing for this belief when it hadn't registered on others' political horizons, he helped bring down the 'Evil Empire'.