Charlie Wilson's War: The Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History

#758
Title: Charlie Wilson's War: The Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History
Author: George Crile III
Publisher: Grove
Year: 2003
560 pages

A fascinating overview of US involvement in Soviet-occupied Afghanistan, revealing a history quite different from what one was told at the time. It reinforces the impressions that


1. Governments are full of scheming narcissists and manipulable incompetents.
2. Narcissists do what they want, for their own gain and egos.
3. If you get in the way of a narcissist or its government, you will be destroyed.
4. You may be destroyed for trivial reasons.
5. The law is for hoi polloi only.
6. Governments lie and act angry and shocked when held accountable for their ilegal acts.
7. All explanations of behavior are rationalizations for aggressive primate pissing and grabbing contests.

Cf. the opening scenes of 2001: A Space Odyssey. This book will inform you, but it won't make you want to spend more time with humans.