Charlie Wilson’s War isn’t just a catchy title; it’s a true story stranger than fiction. It’s a tale of backroom deals and high-stakes diplomacy, of stingers and mujahideen, of Hollywood glamour and the brutal realities of war. It’s a story that raises questions about the nature of power, the price of freedom, and the unintended consequences of good intentions.
Congressman Wilson walks out onto the balcony and says to Gust “Well I told you…all we had to do was shoot down the helicopters” referencing the arming of the Mujahadeen with Stinger missiles to do battle with the Soviet Hind Attack Birds. The politician predictably smug and happy with his simplistic solution to defeating the soviets smiles with contentment.
Gust…the seasoned CIA professional pushes back with the story of the Zen Master and the Little Boy.
On his sixteenth birthday the boy gets a horse as a present. All of the people in the village say, “Oh, how wonderful!”
The Zen master says, “We’ll see.”
One day, the boy is riding and gets thrown off the horse and hurts his leg. He’s no longer able to walk, so all of the villagers say, “How terrible!”
The Zen master says, “We’ll see.”
Some time passes and the village goes to war. All of the other young men get sent off to fight, but this boy can’t fight because his leg is messed up. All of the villagers say, “How wonderful!”
The Zen master says, “We’ll see.”
The message behind this story is pretty clear. We’re prone to jump to conclusions about whether something is “good” or “bad.” We are especially quick to label something as “bad.” The reality is that things can be either good or bad, both good and bad, or neither. Now given the world we live in. and our own nation’s 20 odd year engagement in Afghanistan the message resonates in the geo-political sense. But I want to take it a bit further to business.
In the scene, Gust says to Congressman Wilson ‘ You get it?” after he finishes his sentence with “we’ll see”. Tom Hanks replies with “no..I don’t cause I’m stupid”. Gust says “no your not your just in congress”.
Gust was trying to remind him the job wasn’t done. He need to lobby for more money, for the unsexy the food, the jobs, the hope giving agendas that stop long term conflicts from happening. Alas Gusts warning fell on deaf ears.
Wilson makes a point that half the population of Afghanistan is under the aged of 14…we come in and “change the world” and then we leave. The ball keeps bouncing.
Here we are some 40 plus years later and once again we repeat the horrible mistake of our past leaving in the middle of the night. 40 years from now what will the next attack look like