Once again in an age filled with war, throughout the ages America has found itself in the barracks of battle. The decision to go to war lies behind the closed doors of the White House, and in some cases the motivation behind the decision remains there as well. As we have seen with the war in Iraq, a cloud of mystery still surrounds many aspects of the war. While secrecy and the possibility of corruption are cause for concern, the war with Iraq pales in comparison to the Soviet-Afghan war of the past. Charlie Wilson’s War by George Crile reveals one of the single-largest covert CIA operation in the history of the United States. The operation itself was run by a few rogue individuals seeking revenge on the Soviets. The American defeat at Vietnam left many with a bad taste in their mouths, and some decided to take action. Charlie Wilson, a Congressman from Texas, and Gust Avrakotos, a CIA operative, became more than mere acquaintances during the 1980s, when they worked together on a campaign to gather funds and purchase weapons to be sent to the Freedom Fighters in Afghanistan (Sullivan, 2005). Charlie Wilson’s sway was a result of his position in Congress; while Gust Avrakotos used his hooligan background to purchase weapons wherever he could. Gust Avrakotos played a monumental role in the Soviet-Afghan war, though he never received proper thanks or award for his contributions to this operation. Growing up, life in the small steel town of Aliquippa was rough for Gust, a rough life that later helped him become the spy he needed to be to stay alive in the CIA. Gust spoke Greek, and was invited into the CIA for this reason, and sent to work in Greece. Gust worked himself up the chain of command and eventually, through unexpected circumstances was the acting CIA director of that region’s station. His meeting with Charlie Wilson occurred while working near Pakistan in the Middle East. Ever since the day Winston Churchill’s speech claiming the Soviets would “fight on, no matter what the cost, never to be conquered,” Wilson’s journey to bring the soviet empire down began (Crile, 2003). Gust and Wilson shared similar ideologies, Gust was brought up being taught to always do what you can for your country and not expect anything in return. Surely Kennedy’s words “… not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country”, were strong in the minds of both men as their journey together began. The two men combine forces and begin providing funds and weapons to the Afghan Mujahedeen, known as the” freedom fighters.” Together Wilson and Gust would provide billions of US dollars in funding to the mujahedeen. With the millions of dollars provided through Charlie Wilson’s “go get em” attitude, Gust ran a staff of twenty, who reached out to hundreds of other staff members when needed. Things that would normally take a year or two were tackled in two weeks; such was their strength and motivation. Wilson was on both the House of Representatives defense appropriations, and the subcommittee, which granted him power to fight the bills he needed to get passed as they went through the political system. Wilson’s promises were worth more than gold, and words from his mouth were as official as a signed and printed contract. George Crile, the author of Charlie Wilson’s War, details the lavish life that Wilson led, one without worry or consequence. Wilson used the United States government to provide arms and funds to bring a proxy war to fight against the Soviets. This provided security to our homeland, and our troops. If the US Government released information on its involvement with the Mujahedeen, the most probable result would have been a nuclear war with the Soviets. By financing this covert operation and having the tribesmen fight in place of US troops, the US thoroughly covered its tracks and prevented a Soviet attack. According to Crile’s book, the Saudis matched dollar for dollar, which helped get things going. Brzezinski was a key player in getting the initial funding to Afghanistan, which was not mentioned in this book. Brzezinski was close friends with President Carter which allowed him to discuss foreign policy and possible security threats in the Middle East (Goetschel, 2005). The current war in Iraq and the operations in Afghanistan during the 1980s relate to the vulnerable paranoia that fueled American involvement in the Soviet-Afghan war. In the case of Iraq, the number of reasons we are there were related to the public, but several years later we watched a President backtracking and changing his words. Whether it be for the control of Oil, or the nation’s security worries about terrorists, the reasons for the war in Iraq and debated by all sides. What we can gather is that our government needs a strong force in the middle east to be ready to fight any growing power which tries to threaten the U.S. By having hundreds of thousands of troops in Iraq, we control the oil purchases, we can possibly switch currencies to help our economic dollar, as well as slow the growth of some of the new hegemonies. With China’s growth, militarily and economically, China is the largest growing threat we have. In our efforts to provide arms to the Mujahedeen we brought consequences that we were unaware of at the time. These consequences can be found in the militant groups found in and around Afghanistan, some still using the funds and arms we had provided them. Our role in the Iraq war is to provide a balance of power, balancing the power before any other country can take some of our capability to set and enforce the policies. The fundamental idea behind the realist premise is that we must act with strength and knowledge to overcome our enemies. In the book, Charlie Wilson’s War, and our current situation in Iraq, we must present a realist certainty that if we do not act, others will.
Works Cited Crile, G. (2003). Charlie Wilson's War. New York: Grove Press. Genest, M. A. (2004). Conflict and Cooeration. Belmont: Wadsworth. Sullivan, P. (2005, December 25). CIA Agent Gust L. Avrakotos Dies at Age 67. Retrieved march 17, 2007, from Washington Post : http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/24/AR2005122400871.html
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