Watching Charlie Wilson's War

I did go to a movie on Christmas, since I managed to get out of baking a cake and we all had some time on our hands. We decided on Charlie Wilson's War after a short debate about seeing that or Juno. I'll probably go to Juno with Kelly anyway, so this worked out well.

It was a pretty good flick, as far as dark comedies with superstars go. Mom didn't find it funny (which doesn't surprise me), but Nick & I did. I know that some reviewers have been put off by the quick roundup of the lack of support for Afghanistan at the end of the move (and the war against the Soviets), and I also felt that it missed something at the end. But it wasn't the tacked on bits about the Zen master and the unintended consequences of ditching your "allies." Instead, it was the naive manner with which they portrayed Wilson at the end. I mean, come on! this guy had been in Congress for a while; I can hardly believe he really was surprised that everyone would just walk away once there were no more Soviet helicopters to bomb. He really never asked "so, what happens once the war's over?" during the course of rounding up weapons and money? Geez.

But, then again, maybe that really is how it was. It's the "what happens next" that gets you in trouble, and that's what people always ignore until it's too late. I was reading something stupid in Commentary today about "no one" anticipating something or other (I can't remember exactly what it was . . . perhaps it was the rise of the Taliban and their anti-US stance). And all I could think was: get real, plenty of people could see this coming.

So, if anyone is surprised by any of the following, I'm just going to tell them they are an idiot in no uncertain terms. And this is a short list, so there may be many other idiots coming:

• Civil War in Pakistan


• Violent ethnic/religious uprising in India, goaded by the BJP


• Ethiopia getting bogged down in a two front war


• The entrenchment of al Qaeda in North Africa, including more bombings in Algeria, and probable violence in places such as Morocco, Sudan, Nigeria, Kenya, and Ethiopia


• Growing charges of authoritarianism and diminishing democracy in South Africa, along with political instability caused by Zimbabwe's economy and SA's support of Mugabe


• Housing-based recession (in several other OECD countries as well as the US), with increasing disparity between the middle class and the rich, along with a strong push to free states from balanced budget requirements

Who knows if any of these will happen. Just saying that we shouldn't be surprised if they do.

Now, what will really surprise me? Whatever Americans choose to dump all of their money into next. They've done stocks and houses. I just can't quite wrap my head around what they'll pick next. Art/antiques/collectibles, gold, and foreign currencies are the three that seem most accessible, but they also don't seem very likely to snag more than a few true believers. There's got to be something that will fill all those get-rich-quick desires and then explode into a giant catastrophe by 2014. But what?