Ex-Rep. Charlie Wilson dies.

Society Pakistan & World Affairs
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He was the guy who helped direct billions of dollars to Afghan jihad & in process gave legitimacy Zia dictatorship, but was he a friend of Pakistan. May he rest in peace.

Ex-Rep. Charlie Wilson | Philadelphia Inquirer | 02/11/2010

Ex-Rep. Charlie Wilson

By Jamie Stengle

Associated Press
DALLAS - Charlie Wilson, 76, the former congressman from Texas whose funding of Afghanistan’s resistance to the Soviet Union was chronicled in the movie Charlie Wilson’s War, died yesterday.

He died at Memorial Medical Center-Lufkin after he started having difficulty breathing during a meeting in the eastern Texas town where he lived, hospital spokeswoman Yana Ogletree said. Rep. Wilson was pronounced dead on arrival, and the preliminary cause of death was cardiopulmonary arrest, she said.

He represented the Second District in the U.S. House from 1973 to 1996 and was known in Washington as “Good Time Charlie” for his reputation as a hard-drinking womanizer.

Actor Tom Hanks portrayed Rep. Wilson in the 2007 movie about the congressman’s efforts to arm Afghan mujaheddin during Afghanistan’s war against the Soviet Union in the 1980s. Rep. Wilson, a member of the House Appropriations Committee, helped secure money for weapons.

In 2007, he had a heart transplant at a Houston hospital. Doctors had told Rep. Wilson, who suffered from cardiomyopathy, a disease that causes an enlarged and weakened heart, that he would likely die without a transplant.

“Charlie was perfect as a congressman, perfect as a state representative, perfect as a state senator,” said Charles Schnabel Jr., who served for seven years as Rep. Wilson’s chief of staff in Washington and worked with Rep. Wilson when he served in the Texas Senate. “He was a perfect reflection of the people he represented.”

Schnabel said he had just been with Rep. Wilson a few weeks ago for the dedication of the Charlie Wilson chair for Pakistan studies at the University of Texas, Austin, a $1 million endowment. He said Rep. Wilson had been doing well.

Rep. Wilson is survived by his wife, Barbara, and a sister.

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I know him from the movie only. Probably he had no idea about the monster he was creating, when he started fundinding the jihadis against Russia!

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does our General's have idea when they were having dreams of using Taliban's as proxy for taking over the world?

Anyway this man was a legend, and in his country he will be remembered as a Hero !

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Re: Ex-Rep. Charlie Wilson dies.

Hindsight is always 20/20

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taleban are still there...a reality...and the americans are trying to negotiate some deal with them, some power sharing formula...so whats new??

Islamabad protest -- Operation started
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lol poor souls, keep having wet dreams - their are so many proxy war's going in Afghanistan thats who is who's dog is the issue now !

Islamabad protest -- Operation started
Islamabad protest -- Operation started
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Re: Ex-Rep. Charlie Wilson dies.

Supporting the Americans in the Afghan Jihad was the biggest mistake Pakistan made.

And Charlie wilson used Pakistan for his own anti-communist crusade. Had the Saur revolution succeded in Afghanistan, we would have had a democratic neighbour, with an educated population and would have seen the start of the breakdown of the tribalism that afflicts Afghanistan today.

The Tom Hanks film sugar coated what was a narrow minded southern republican, who used the lifes of Afghans to pursue his political agenda.

I blame Wilson and Reagan as much as Zia and Gul for the mess we are in.

For Americans, at least they are trying to correct there mistakes, we in Pakistan are still following the same failed policies of supporting the Jihadis in Kashmir and Afghanistan.