After a trip to the Pakistani-Afghan frontier, where he sees firsthand the casualties of the Soviets' wanton violence, Wilson is moved to action. Against the inertia of Washington's intelligence and diplomatic bureaucracy, he and Avrakotos (Philip Seymour Hoffman) secretly funnel defense appropriations into arming Afghan mujahideen freedom fighters against the Russians.A decade after the 1979 invasion, the Soviets retreat from the equivalent of their Vietnam — and there's nary an American fingerprint on the Stinger missiles that brought down their helicopters, thanks to the canny back-channel machinations of Wilson and Avrakotos, who enlist the help of the Israeli, Egyptian, Pakistani and Saudi governments in smuggling ordnance to the mujahideen.
By all means let's remind foreign audiences that it was not Osama who drove the Soviets out of Afghanistan. Cuts right across the jihadist narrative.
