Charlie Wilson in his office with an Enfield rifle (photo reproduced in The Times, Marcy Nighswander/AP)
All Flashmen are deeply saddened to learn of the death of Charlie Wilson. Immortalised in print by George Crile, and in a subsequent moving picture, Mr Wilson played a crucial role in ramping up American funding to the Afghan resistance to the Soviet invasion during the ’80s.
Mr Wilson’s association with the CIA, US Navy, recreational binge drinking and generally cavalier attitude to conforming to the moralistic norms of an American political career, seem to have jaundiced some commentators against him. Others see his funding for the mujahadeen as the catalyst for today’s more acutely global threats.
For Flashmen though, anyone who gets their shirts tailored with epaulettes, enjoys champagne and travels regularly to the aid of those in Central and Southern Asia’s more idiosyncratically dangerous regions, deserves a salute.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Mr Wilson will be buried with full military honours at Arlington on 23 February.
Flashmen 
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