Rating: 
Summary: Hooray for the perfect gift!!
Review: We purchased this book as a Christmas gift for my Father-in-law, who is incredibly difficult to buy for. This is the first gift ever I think he has actually enjoyed. So much so, that he has already passed it on to two other people and still talks about it six months later. We have given several books before, so this must be worth the read!
Rating: 
Summary: hard to put down
Review: Crile nonjudgementally tells a spellbinder of a story about how the covert war in Afghanistan played out. This is an important addition to the public discourse, since so many people are willing to naively or manipulatively assign credit for the fall of the Soviets to Ronald Reagan alone, rather than to the liberal rogue from East Texas, Charlie Wilson. It also gives valuable insights into the way the CIA and Federal Government work in practice, and how much can change can be effected by fascinating and flawed individuals. The fact that the Afghan jihad got off the ground at all with the myriad competing interests at play strikes me as nothing less than a kind of dark miracle. At the same time, the book clearly provides the indicators of how every silver lining has a dark underbelly. With so much policy power in effect left in the hands of CIA operative Gust Avrakatos, many of the problems of the region were started in this time of the USSR's waning. The characters are absolutely fascinating. Wilson and Avrakatos, in particular, are at once riveting and repugnant. The book is not without flaws--the editor would have done well to swoop down and eliminate some bland and repetitive prose that pops up throughout. Nevertheless, Crile succeeds in providing a rich, in-depth portrait of this massive covert operation and the wild way in which it lurched forward.
Rating:
Summary: utterly amazing
Review: If this were fiction I would have to give it three stars or less for being unbelievably over-the-top. Would you beleive that an alcoholic sex-maniac liberal Democrat Congressman illegaly ran the biggest covert program in the history of the USA without ANY kind of sanction from the Executive branch!?!
Depending on your point-of-view, Rep. Wilson's endless escapades that included drunk hit-and-run car crashes and wasting endless amounts of taxpayer money on flying his many girlfriends around the world will either amuse or disgust you. Likewise the Congressman's one-man foreign policy that was entirely invented by him and approved of by no one. You will be awed by the courage of the Afghans who were literally willing to die to the last man to expell the Red Army from their land. You will also be disgusted by these same Afghans who would rape their Russian prisoners until they died and also took liberties with pack mules supplied by the CIA.
In this post 9/11 world you will wonder if arming the most violent and primitive people on the face of the Earth with modern weapons and giving them a taste for taking down a superpower was a bright idea after all.
Rating:
Summary: Good History
Review: "In little over a decade, two events have transformed the world we live in: the collapse of our Cold War nuclear foe, the Soviet Union; and the discovery, after 9/11, that we face a new global enemy in the form of militant Islam," (Crile) the fulcrum point for both of these events appears to be a Texas Congressman named Charlie Wilson. In this book, Crile documents the activities of this maverick congressman as he organizes CIA operatives and funding to arm the Afghan rebels with military weapons, including the Stinger missile, to defeat the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. In a twist of fate, while freeing Afghans, he may have set the stage for terrorist training, leading up to 911. Crile's accounts of this fascinating history reads like a novel and is well-documented. This is good history, worth reading.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting story poorly told
Review: I should have put 2+2 together. The back cover has a strong endorsement by Dan Rather. It wasn't until Crile lionized "Gunga Dan" early in the book that I realized the quid-pro-quo (Crile is a long time 60 minutes producer.)
My objection to the storytelling has to do with the overabundance of profanity. Wilsons CIA minion Gust Avrakotos seems incapable of uttering a full sentence without dropping f-bombs. The amount of Avrakotos quotations Crile used implies that he found Avrakotos simply 'colorful'. I find it to be a very inarticulate way of getting a message across.
The book is very negative and Crile overuses too many phrases and expressions like "Gust loved nothing more than killing Russians".
Criles romanticisation of both characters and their resourcefulness in hijacking policy seems poorly placed in the context of the US-loathing terrorists they created. It's not that much of a stretch to place a certain degree of culpability for 9/11 on these two ignorant cowboys (with all due respect for cowboys).
I will give Wilson and Avrakotos credit for executing on their beliefs, but not much more.
Rating:
Summary: Wilson wanted revenge for American blood spilled in Vietnam
Review: "Charlie Wilson's War: The Extraordinary story of the Largest Covert Operation in History," by George Crile is an eye-popping account of how a "rule-breaking" Congressman from the Bible Belt of east Texas took revenge on the Soviet Union for American blood spilled in Vietnam. The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan on December 27, 1979 and pulled out on February 15, 1989. All and all, 28,000 Soviet soldiers were killed in Afghanistan. Crile brilliantly documents how Charlie Wilson is the man that made it happen.
Charles "Nesbitt" Wilson is a 1956 graduate of Annapolis who worshipped Winston Churchill and entered politics in 1961 at the age of 27 as Texas State Representative. Wilson won a seat to Congress in 1973 as a Liberal. He regularly voted against Vietnam and eventually became of strong defender of Israel. Wilson's appointment to the House Appropriations Committee and a strategic alliance with an irreverent street-wise CIA veteran named Gust Avrakotos ignited the biggest covert action since the Vietnam War. It wasn't easy...Wilson took on the CIA's regional masters and won. He did so by dramatically increasing CIA funding for the Afghan fighters. His primary mission was to find a weapon that could knock the powerful Russian Mi-24 Hind Helicopter gun ship out of the sky.
The author is knowledgeable. He reports the towering importance of revenge in Afghan society. He also details the cruel and disturbing side of the Afghan tribal warriors. To this end, Crile shows how the Afghans were seen as freedom fighters before 9/11 and as terrorists afterward. Moreover, Crile explains how the Afghans grew confident with the defeat of a superpower. Ultimately, this book is a strong account of how the CIA funded the war against Moscow's army and how the defeat at the hands of the Afghans contributed to the demise of the Soviet Union. In conclusion, Crile must be commended for documenting a key piece of CIA history for "Main Street" America. Highly recommended.
Bert Ruiz
Rating:
Summary: Amazing, even-handed story.
Review: I, unlike the previous reviewer, thought the approach was very fair. I don't think Wilson's faults were glossed over, nor do I think the recruits sent in by the Russians were portrayed as much, other than raw and naive. The soldiers were not portrayed as evil, in fact, they were by-and-large terrified of the Afghans. I also think he fairly protrayed the Afghans, Pakistanis, and Wilson as humans. This is simply an incredible convergence of fate, all the more so in that this is an unheard of story, by people who usual look for things like this. It's either a great hoax, on par with the nerve gas in Cambodia thing that 20-20 did a few years ago, or it's simply an amazing tale. I don't think the author was over-enamored with the government, nor was he willing to discount the efforts of motivated individuals in key locations.
For the record, I am a card-carrying, Bush-Hating, Al Franken and Michael Moore loving liberal. I think there are far more worrisome, well-funded efforts of the administration underway to influence public opinion. Fortunately, most of human history flows away from the efforts of ambitious men, and I think this book is da bomb, and all dat.
Rating:
Summary: Incredible Covert Ops
Review: Crile does a great job detailing the CIA's dark opertion of arming the mujahideen. I was mainly interested in the Epliogue of Unintended Consequences, specifically the weapons caches left in the Khyber Pass and the return to tribal infighting following the Soviet withdrawl. Cross-check the details with the 9/11 report, and notice how this operation is still greatly glossed over in history.
Rating:
Summary: Unbelievable Characters
Review: If you put the political implications aside, this is an unbelievable story portrayed by colorful characters. Yes, there are troubling aspects to the funding of the Taliban, but the world was different in 1985 and what better way to pay back the Russians for Vietnam than to fund the Taliban. Whoever was against the Russians was our friend (no matter how foul the regime), who would guess what the Taliban would become. To say the characters were colorful is a gross understatement. If you do not read this book, just read the end of the book Epilogue:Unintended Consequences. I don't believe men like Charlie Wilson can exist in this day and age and it's a shame. It is a good book and will give you a different view on the post 9/11 world. The book has some grapic descriptions on what happened to captured Russian soliders. This will make a great movie. I would love to visit the Kyber Pass.
Rating:
Summary: Three books in One
Review: This is the exciting story of the CIA's secret war against the Russians in Afghanistan; how they got involved and how they eventually, against all odds, won. In addition, it is an entertaining and enlightening look at the lives of Congressman Charlie Wilson and his friend CIA agent Gust Avrakotos. And it is a remarkable look into the inner workings of Congress with insights you didn't get in your poly sci classes. It truely is an "Extraordinary Story." You won't be able to put it down.
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