hard rain

"Isn't that how you were able to double the CIA budget for black approps in Afghanistan just by sayin' so?"


-- Why are you only askin' me questions you already know the answers to?


{Charlie Wilson's War.  Mike Nichols - Aaron Sorkin - 2007 - Book by George Crile}


A little later, as the conversation continues between Congressman Charlie Wilson and Houston socialite and sometime activist Joanne Herring...


Joanne -- Charlie?
-- Yes, ma'am?


-- Why is the CIA running a fake war in Afghanistan?
Wilson -- "They're doin' everything they can."


Joanne -- "They're doing it badly."


-- The CIA is arming the mujahideen.  Where do you think they're getting their weapons?


Joanne -- "They're arming them with 12.7 millimeter Dishukas.


Which would be good, except the Soviets have specifically armor-plated their Hind helicopter to resist a 12.7 millimeter shell.  We sold Pakistan F-16s, but didn't give them the look-down shoot-down radar."



----------- As she talks to the congressman she adjusts and re-applies make-up, looking in the mirror, with an array of beauty products, application brushes, etc. at her disposal.  A bottle of light yellow liquid says Chanel on it.


Beside Wilson, a bottle of brown liquid says whiskey on it. -------------


Joanne -- If this were a real war, State would issue a White Paper outlining the Communist threat, the way they did in El Salvador.


If this were a real war, there'd be a National Bipartisan Commission on Afghanistan, headed by Henry Kissinger the way they did in Central America.


If this were a real war, Congress would authorize 24 million dollars for covert operations the way you did in Nicaragua.


If this were a real war. ...


Charlie -- You may be.  The sexiest woman ever.  I'm not kiddin' -- you are Helen of Troy.


-- Are you patronizing me?


-- What do you want me to do, Joanne?


-- This is what I want you to do.  I want you to save Afghanistan for the Afghans.  I want you to deliver such a crushing defeat to the Soviets that Communism crumbles, and in so doing, end the Cold War.


Charlie -- I'll tell ya, I'd do it, too, but I got this Dairy Queen problem in Nacogdoches.


She turns her head sharply:  "Don't underestimate me, Charlie.  Believe everything you've heard."...


CUT to
EXT.  Marching Russian soldiers





A deafening Russian marching song plays through this sequence.  ("Farewell of Slavyanka" -- the history of this song may be Googled.  Also if you type it in with that title, I think you can play it on You Tube.)


First you see marching soldiers, then (the song still playing)





helicopters.  And it shows them flying over all this desert sandy area, with Afghan people running and being mowed down from the gunships overhead.


-30-