Charlie Wilson's War: America's History With Afghanistan

Rachael Riggs

Henley-Putnam

National American University

Charlie Wilson's War: America's History With Afghanistan

Charlie Wilson, this name appears as a simple, ordinary name. However, Charlie Wilson is far from an ordinary man. The details of Charlie Wilson and his actions as a Texas Congressman would become the subject of many books, articles, news stories, and a large motion picture starring Tom Hanks. (Nichols, 2007) Charlie Wilson's role in congress would ultimately change history. The book "Charlie Wilson's War" by George Crile (Crile, 2003) chronicles the story of a boisterous congressman and the people he worked with to help arm the Afghan Freedom Fighters to fight a common enemy, the Soviet Union.

During the Reagan Administration, Charlie Wilson and CIA Operative Gust Avrakotos took decisive action together. Following the decision by Charlie to double the budget in Afghanistan, the CIA took notice. Gust Avrakotos set up a meeting with Charlie, and the two began a working relationship. These two men quickly understood that they shared the same ideas and the same passion for defeating the Red Army and preventing a communist takeover.

The idea behind this covert plan was to provide the Afghans with weapons to help them fight the Soviets, which had invaded Afghanistan. As America saw it, if the Soviets took over Afghanistan, that would be the beginning of an even larger fight and the eventual takeover of America. (Nichols, 2007) Wilson helped allocate $2 billion in arms and assistance to prevent this from happening. (Ken Herman American-Statesman Washington Staff, 2001)

Weapons from the CIA were transported into Pakistan to conceal any US involvement, then from Pakistan into Afghanistan. The artillery would have no markings from the United States. Because this was a covert war conducted by the CIA, It was necessary that any US involvement not be known. Weapons had Russian markings, so they appeared to have been weapon casualties acquired while fighting. The US plan was to drain the Soviets of their resources slowly. After much time and money, the Afghans succeeded in our allied fight against the Soviets.

One of the realities of any covert operation and is especially tragic for this one is that the details are not to be known. There were no news headlines telling the story of the CIA's money pouring into Afghanistan to help combat our common enemy. Most of Afghanistan did not realize that the US was the source behind the money and the weapons. The Afghans thought the guns were a gift from Allah. The US, along with the Freedom Fighters, would together be the success of this war. With the help of the United States, the Afghans would be provided enough artillery to fight the Red Army until forced to retreat in 1989. It is impossible to know if the Afghan freedom fighters had been aware of this allied fight if things would have played out any differently.

The unintended consequences of aiding and arming Afghanistan would prove both costly and tragic. America helped prevent the Soviet takeover in Afghanistan, but without committing to help rebuild, more problems were allowed to accumulate. Afghanistan was left to recover alone from the war, and as they attempted to, they became dependent on funding. This recovery attempt opened the doors to individuals and groups influencing conflict and allowed Afghanistan to become a housing ground for groups such as Al Qaeda. (Prados, 2002) Also, as the Afghan Rebels pursued more funding during the time of US involvement, they began negotiating in the drug trade. During this secret war waged by the CIA, Afghanistan became a leading producer of heroin. (Prados, 2002) By 1990 the Afghan Freedom Fighters that fought to keep the Soviets out had gone back to feuding warlords. (Crile, 2003)

The most significant consequence of them all would change the nation. September 11, 2001, the results of which our country will never be the same. What happened on that fateful day is not the result of the money provided to Afghanistan. It was not the weapons we provided, nor did they use those weapons against us. What happened on that day resulted from allowing a place for groups like the Taliban to inhabit, grow, and flourish.

As news headlines described the attacks on September 11, 2001, it would seem to have been an essential piece of information for the Americans to know that throughout the 1980s, the US was funding the most successful Jihad in today's history. (Crile, 2003) It seems Americans would have been interested to understand that the CIA covertly armed and trained Afghans to fight our common Soviet enemy, and now many of those same veterans of this CIA-backed army were targeting the United States. (Crile, 2003) Still, very little was ever reported on this fact. The obvious reason little was broadcast after the attacks is the US embarrassment and this reporting would have conflicted with the Bush administration's "War on Terror" campaign. (Crile, 2003)

Helping Afghanistan fight the Soviets was not us fighting another country's war. The US believed that if the Soviets were able to take over Afghanistan, it was only a matter of time before we were next. (Nichols, 2007) The US felt that the Soviets needed to be stopped. The results in Afghanistan were excellent and played a large part in the collapse of the Soviet Union. However, America left Afghanistan in disarray. In an interview with Charlie Wilson on September 27, 2001, Wilson states, "The part that I'll take to my grave with guilt is that I didn't stay the course and stay there and push and drive the other members of Congress nuts pushing for a mini-Marshall Plan" (Herman, 2001)

Afghanistan's war continued long after the Soviets retreated. The United States, Saudi Arabia, and Russia continued pumping money into Afghanistan as Russia and the United States realized now they had a common goal in stabilizing Afghanistan. Every ounce of aid and effort put into Afghanistan was met with tragedy, massacres, and barbaric actions.

In that same interview with Wilson, he describes his guilt, not because of arming Afghanistan. He remains insistent that aiding and arming the rebels was the right thing. Wilson's guilt that he feels is for not following it through to the end. He says, "The void that we left there had to be filled, and it got filled," he continues by saying, "This was a congressionally driven war. And if you are going to take credit for driving war and you screw up the end game, you have to take credit for that, too." (Herman, 2001)

It is interesting to understand that the creation of Al Qaeda began in 1979 during the Soviet takeover of Afghanistan, and the same year Charlie Wilson made that first move to double the budget for Afghanistan. The formation of ISIS occurred after the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. The terrorist's inside the US ran prisons, networked inside, and formed a group where Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi made himself into leader of this group. In 2011 a revolt against the Assad regime in Syria turned itself into a civil war, which enabled the ISIS group to take over. ISIS now had a base for operations on Syria's northeast territory.

After the US troops withdrew from Afghanistan, ISIS took advantage of this opportunity and began taking over Iraq. In 2014, most Iraq had been taken over by ISIS, which now had renamed itself the Islamic State. US intelligence estimates that approximately 15,000 individuals from 80 countries traveled to join ISIS, about 1,000 per month. Most of these individuals are Muslim. Some from Australia, China, Russia, and other European countries. Shockingly ISIS also managed to attract middle-class American teenagers from areas such as Minneapolis, Denver, and Chicago. ISIS's objective is to gain territory and position itself as the sole political, religious, and military authority. (Cronin, 2015)

In 2019 the US special forces underwent a covert mission that took out ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. As Former CIA counterterrorism analyst Aki Peritz says, "It's good to take out the leader, but it's not just a terrorist group —it's an ideology as well; stamping out the idea of the Islamic State will prove to be much more difficult than one successful military/intelligence operation." (Hennigan, 2019)

So as we move forward, looking back over forty years of some type of US involvement in Afghanistan, what lessons can we learn from this?

America working with Afghanistan while having a common goal of taking down the Soviets was a mission that changed history. Afghanistan would have been defeated if we had not been involved in that war. Because of the support America provided to Afghanistan, the two countries were able to prevent a communist takeover as we slowly bled the Red Army dry of all of their resources.

While the Afghan Freedom Fighters fought and assumed their gifts of weaponry came from Allah (Crile, 2003), their victory only proved to them that if they could conquer one superpower, they could conquer another. (Ken Herman American-Statesman Washington Staff, 2001) Slowly the Islamic dreams were awakened. (Crile, 2003)

There is no way of knowing what the consequences of our actions will be. Charlie Wilson and Gust Avrakotos made the right decision when they put money and weapons into Afghanistan. It was impossible to predict at that time that Al-Qaeda would grow into what it had and that the Afghans the US Government secretly funded and trained would come to hate everything that America stands for. Charlie Wilson says his biggest regret is that he didn't try hard enough. Maybe if America stayed and helped to rebuild the country, things would not have escalated as they had. We see this again repeat itself when the troops pulled out of Iraq with the takeover of ISIS.

It is also essential to understand that not everybody has the same morals and ethics as we do in America. Some groups of people are incapable of order, following laws, and containing ravenous, barbaric activities. So as we accomplished our objective, the unintended consequences are that our weaponry ended up in the wrong hands. As rightly stated by Charlie Wilson, "Those things happen. How are you going to defeat the Red Army without a gun? You can't blame the Marines for teaching Lee Harvey Oswald how to shoot." (Herman, 2001)

The main thing to take away from this is that Afghanistan could not have won this war without US intervention. America is financially capable and understands the need to provide support where and when needed. After it has done so, it is necessary to maintain a presence in the country. It is essential to help rebuild and work to ensure the country not be left as a breeding ground for international terrorism. We must understand that as a leading power, we must take care of those that are incapable of taking care of themselves. If we don't provide this assistance, groups such as ISIS will be allowed to grow and expand, which will only multiply our problems on a scale that we can't even imagine.

References

Crile, G. (2003). Charlie Wilson's War. New York: Grove Press.

Cronin, A. K. (2015, March/April). ISIS Is Not a Terrorist Group: Why Counterterrorism Won't Stop the Latest Jihadist Threat. Foreign Affairs, 94(2), 12. doi:1658669066

Hennigan, W. (2019, October 27). Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi Is Dead. Where Does That Leave ISIS? Time. Retrieved from https://time.com/5711828/al-baghdadi-dead-isis-future/

Herman, K. (2001, September 27). Arms aid now haunts ex-lawmaker He regrets leaving void after defeat of Soviets. The Atlanta Constitution, A.13. doi:413870935

Ken Herman American-Statesman Washington Staff. (2001, September 26). U.S. FOREIGN POLICY: Attacks spur guilt for man who armed Afghanistan Series: SPECIAL REPORT: AMERICA RESOLVED. Austin American Statesmen, A-1. Retrieved 2020, from https://search-proquest-com.nauproxy01.national.edu/docview/256846302/9A5A3CF25D174C75PQ/11?accountid=36299

Nichols, M. (Director). (2007). Charlie Wilson's War [Motion Picture].

Prados, J. (2002). Notes on the CIA's secret war in Afghanistan. The Journal of American History, 89(2), 466-471. Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.nauproxy01.national.edu/docview/224896517/FB37FD16433A4E7BPQ/5?accountid=36299