Just the Facts: Book Discussion Recap from July 24

People left their backyards, swimming pools and vegetable gardens last night to attend the book discussion group, and their presence, as always, was much appreciated.

Our book was Charlie Wilson’s War: the extraordinary story of the largest covert operation in history by George Crile. Charlie Wilson was an obscure congressman from an equally obscure congressional district in east Texas. He was an alcoholic, a womanizer, and a drug user, earning the sobriquet of Good Time Charlie. But he also had a knack for politics, collecting dozens of favors and I.O.U.s in Congress. When he took an interest in tribal resistance against the Soviet invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, he called in those favors to turn what had been a minor, secret C.I.A. operation intended to bleed the Soviets into a multi-billion dollar effort to defeat the Russians. Where the Afghanis had been fighting with WW I era Enfield rifles, they now had AK-47s and Stingers, a state of the art anti-aircraft missile. The book reads like a novel, full of spies, soldiers, belly dancers, exotic locales and C.I.A. infighting. Our conversation covered the folly of government, the nature of different cultures, religious fundamentalism, political extremism, and much more.

Our next meeting will be on Thursday, August 21, 2014 at 7:00 pm. The book to be discussed, The Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland boys, and the dawn of a new America by Gilbert King, is available at the Circulation Desk. All are welcome.