Charlie Wilson's War

Saw a great movie this weekend...Charlie Wilson's War. For those of you who think it will be a snoozer about politics, I assure you that it is not. It is VERY entertaining. You see, Charlie Wilson was one of the biggest party animals in all of Congress, and he actually decided to do something good for humanity when he saw all of the suffering in Afghan refugee camps in Peshewar, Pakistan. What he did was really remarkable. He orchestrated a covert operation to give the Afghans weapons to take down the Russian helicopters, which previously, had been mowing down these poor people with reckless abandon. He brokered this deal by having the Israelis secretly give weapons to the Afghans...quite a remarkable exchange.

All seemed that Charlie did well and good, as the Russians finally gave up their attacks in 1987 after several years of fighting. But, such a prophetic proverb was muttered by one of the key characters that helped out Charlie...it goes something like this:

Once upon a time, there was a farmer in the central region of China. He didn't have a lot of money and, instead of a tractor, he used an old horse to plow his field. One afternoon, while working in the field, the horse dropped dead. Everyone in the village said, "Oh, what a horrible thing to happen." The farmer said simply, "We'll see."

He was so at peace and so calm, that everyone in the village got together and, admiring his attitude, gave him a new horse as a gift. Everyone's reaction now was, "What a lucky man." And the farmer said, "We'll see."

A couple days later, the new horse jumped a fence and ran away. Everyone in the village shook their heads and said, "What a poor fellow!"The farmer smiled and said, "We'll see."

Eventually, the horse found his way home, and everyone again said, "What a fortunate man." The farmer said, "We'll see."

Later in the year, the farmer's young boy went out riding on the horse and fell and broke his leg. Everyone in the village said, "What a shame for the poor boy."The farmer said, "We'll see."

Two days later, the army came into the village to draft new recruits. When they saw that the farmer's son had a broken leg, they decided not to recruit him.Everyone said, "What a fortunate young man."The farmer smiled again - and said "We'll see."

The reason this is prophetic (of sorts) is because after the Afgahnis defeated the Russians, the Taliban came into power and took over...look what is happening there now.