US politician Charlie Wilson dies
Former congressmen famous for funding Afghan mujahidin against Soviet forces dies aged 76.
“People like me didn’t fulfil our responsibilities once the war was over,” he told the Associated Press news agency in a September 2001 interview.
“We allowed this vacuum to occur in Afghanistan and Pakistan, which enraged a lot of people. That was as much my fault as it was a lot of others’.”
Known for his high-living, party-going lifestyle, Wilson developed the nickname “Good Time Charlie” and his activities were chronicled in the Hollywood movie, Charlie Wilson’s War, with actor Tom Hanks playing the lead role.
No longer fun
After serving 12 terms in the US congress, Wilson left politics in 1996, saying he no longer found it any fun.
His death comes just weeks after he attended the dedication of the Charlie Wilson chair for Pakistan Studies at the University of Texas in Austin.a statement commenting on news of Wilson’s death, Rick Perry, the governor of Texas, said the former congressman had “led a life that was oversized even by Hollywood’s standards”.
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| Charlie Wilson, front, was the architect of the CIA’s mission to end the Cold War [AP] |
“After the Soviets left, Charlie kept fighting for the Afghan people and warned against abandoning that traumatised country to its fate – a warning we should have heeded then, and should remember today.”
Interviewed by Al Jazeera over phone, Wajid Shamsul Hassan, the Pakistani high commissioner to the UK, said: “[Charlie Wilson’s] confessions were absolutely right and he was the architect of the operations during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.
“He funded millions of dollars to raise the mujahideen from all over the world who came in and who now have become a menace throughout the region.
“Where he failed was that he couldn’t come up with the idea of an interim arrangement within Afghanistan before the Soviets withdrew their troops. Had he done that, things would have been totally different today.
“This was a failure of US policy at the time. They did not listen to Charlie Wilson. Had they listened, things would have been different.”
For his part, Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, said Wilson had been “an extraordinary patriot whose life showed, once more, that one brave and determined person can alter the course of history.
“As the world now knows, his efforts and exploits helped repel an invader, liberate a people, and bring the Cold War to a close.”