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For the second portion of my summer assignment I watched Charlie Wilson’s War. Throughout the movie the various governments affected many of the individuals. The movie is set in the cold war where the United states would not openly oppose the USSR. When the United States took action against the Soviets it had to be done covertly. Charlie Wilson was a U. S. Congressman who decided to help the Afghans in there battle against the Soviets.
During the movie Charlie tells of how he originally became interested in politics, When he was a boy his twisted neighbor Charles Hazard, an elected city official, poisoned his dog Teddy. To get back at Mr. Hazard, Charlie went out and got a farming drivers permit and drove voters out to the polls, saying before they went to vote, “Not to influence your vote, but Charles Hazard poisoned my dog. ” It was at this moment that Charlie decided that he wanted to be involved in the government, because through the democratic process he was able to get what he wanted.
When faced with the conundrum of how to transport all of the weapons into Afghanistan Charlie asked the President of Pakistan to get involved. The Pakistani president would have not have had to do this step of being a “middle-man” if the US would have declared war with the USSR, but because of the necessity of covert operations the president of Pakistan had to become involved and risk his country to help the United States and Afghanistan.
For Charlie to convince the chairman of the committee overseeing covert operations in the area to vote in his favor he said that he must get a blind pakistani girl out of jail, the girl was put in there because she was raped, and there were not enough witnesses to prove her innocence. The chairman said that if the President of Pakistan released her then he would vote in Charlie’s favor. Because of Pakistan’s Policies the girl was put in jail because she was not able to provide a description of her attacker. Also many Sheep herds were killed by the Soviets Helicopter Pilots.