I seriously tried to find any single drop of truth, objectivity and professionalism in depiction of the events in Afganistan in that movie. And I didn't. It looks like nothing more than politically engaged propaganda of the good old Cold War times, which distorts facts to make a bigger impression on the uninformed viewer. I think you should conduct the in-depth research of such a hot topic before you start projects like this, if you don't want to enrage people who know just slightly more than the average American. It's very clear that the authors didn't do their homework - and I'm glad the movie failed. It's easy to impress the crowd with the horrors of the war, especially when you know exactly that the viewer is too lazy to do his own research about the subject matter. OK, so let's keep it really-really simple and really-really scary: Soviet troops invade poor Afganistan, cruelly murder all the innocent people, especially kids and pregnant women, rape everyone, while our guys help the brave citizens take their country back and defeat the Red monster, and, yeah, we forget about the political complications all over the place not to overload the viewer's brain with too much useless information. I gues that was the logic of the authors. OK, then I want to thank them for taking the audience for undereducated idiots. Thanks guys. Now we know everything about that war. No need to dig into historical books. Yeah!... etc... etc... etc... etc... etc...

I seriously tried to find any single drop of truth, objectivity and professionalism in depiction of the events in Afganistan in that movie. And I didn't. It looks like nothing more than politically engaged propaganda of the good old Cold War times, which distorts facts to make a bigger impression on the uninformed viewer. I think you should conduct the in-depth research of such a hot topic before you start projects like this, if you don't want to enrage people who know just slightly more than the average American. It's very clear that the authors didn't do their homework - and I'm glad the movie failed. It's easy to impress the crowd with the horrors of the war, especially when you know exactly that the viewer is too lazy to do his own research about the subject matter. OK, so let's keep it really-really simple and really-really scary: Soviet troops invade poor Afganistan, cruelly murder all the innocent people, especially kids and pregnant women, rape everyone, while our guys help the brave citizens take their country back and defeat the Red monster, and, yeah, we forget about the political complications all over the place not to overload the viewer's brain with too much useless information. I gues that was the logic of the authors. OK, then I want to thank them for taking the audience for undereducated idiots. Thanks guys. Now we know everything about that war. No need to dig into historical books. Yeah!

Well, I don't care much about Soviet Union. I care about people.

Obviously Soviet union was supporting pro-communist government, invading the sovereign country - that is bad by any means, and that's a political perspective (short-term), an issue the movie focuses on. But it does not take into account (we can even say, ignores) another perspective: historical (long-term). With all complications of this war, and all the terrible mistakes that were done, Soviet union was fighting against the rise of islamic fundamentalism, which it considered a threat, while nobody else did. Nobody will question that the same islamic fundamentalism became the mother of the world's terrorism, which in the end brought us Chechnya wars, Beslan, 9/11 and other terrorist attacks. Nowadays it is considered the biggest global threat, whereas 20+ years ago it was taken quite differently. That's the tragedy of USSR: trying to resolve a right problem with the wrong means will never give positive results. And guess what: the same mistake has been repeated by current American administration.

We can talk about how the movie hides facts to impress the viewer. In February 1986 at the Party congress Gorbachev, after being appointed General Secretary in March 1985, made a statement about starting the plan of withdrawal of troops from Afganistan. Again, for those who can't read well: February 1986. In March 1986 (one more time for those who can't read well: March 1986) Americans started supplying mojahedins with Stingers to bring down Soviet Aviation, and that's where the movie starts showing us the numbers of destroyed choppers and planes by seasons. And then, voilà, April 1988, Geneva agreements signed. So where's the logic: the official course to withdrawal and exit had been taken and declared by the all-powerful Red monster (meaning the war is gonna be over shortly), while peaceful American administration and heroic Charlie Wilson start supplying mojahedins with weapons and money. Something doesn't work here. Well, they say war is a good business for some.

It took so long to stop the war because of high political instability in Soviet Union: the living corpse Brezhnev died in 1982, while his brain and heart were not working well for quite a while, and his political influence was insignificant; Andropov, the deeply ill man with artificial kidney, who couldn't live without special treatment, ruled for 1 year and 4 months, died on his post; Chernenko, another living corpse, ruled for less than a year, died on his post. So before Gorbachev there was not even a leader who could do any significant steps to stop the war, while some people on the both sides of the conflict wanted the war to go on. Did the movie show us anything behind the curtain? NO!

P.S. So where's that guy who advised me to read historical books? Probably washing his pants...

You probably don't read English well, since I never said anything what you've mentioned here (like, "insulting soviet rulers, altruistic, good hearted, didn't subjugate, godsend ruling class" - I've never said anything like this). I guess you just wanted to find something to argue about. Or you might be just stupid. Either way works. Oppositional defiant disorder, my friend, is a serious illness.

Man, you must be really stupid to bring up my own sitation. Damn, I'm laughing under the freaking table! Worst peace of plagiarism I've seen on this forum. You f$cked up yourself big time right here right now! Guys, can you belive this?!

Man, I'm not gonna even diagnose your case: you are just an I-D-I-O-T!

You just sucked, accept that and move on. I think you learned the lesson not to argue with those who can drown you in shit.

Yeah, those who tried to outwit me now rest in the ground peacefully. Because I'm the only genius in the whole f#cking business.

Rump was alluding to someone's quote.