Status Updates From Charlie Wilson's War: The E...

"They were dying, too. Oh yes, the mujahideen were continuing to die in far, far greater numbers than the Soviets and their Afghan allies. But the mujahideen go straight to Paradise, where the pleasures are so sweet. There is no heaven for the unbelievers."

"As Ghaffar crossed the Pakistan border, moved into the tribal zone, and then began traveling across the dry and wasted landscape of southern Afghanistan, he and his men looked little different from their greatgrandfathers, who had twice shattered British invasions in the nineteenth century."

"It is said that all the determinants of success, luck is the most important."

"He had seen only the grotesque vision of a drunken congressman, stained by a drug scandal and blundering about the Islamic world with a belly dancer in tow. “He was just a terribly egregious fellow,” he says. “I found Charlie to be repugnant.” As far as Hart was concerned, this was a man no true Muslim could tolerate."

"When you grow up realizing the only way to get out of the sh*thole is by using your brain, you respect brains."