Charlie's apartment

I saw the movie Charlie Wilson's War and enjoyed it.  I particularly loved the political advice at the end: don't abandon your allies after you help them win a war.  Films never have any effect in the real world.  Not one Democrat walked out of that movie and said 'my party and all of its presidential candidates are totally in favor of abandoning our allies in Iraq, cutting and running, just like we Democrats did in Vietnam in 1974 and 1987 in Afghanistan....I won't support such nonsense.'

That was not the point of this blog.  I just wanted to be on record as having been in the apartment building in Arlington, possibly the same apartment that is shown as Congressman Charlie Wilson's bachelor flat. I have looked at that same view many times and spent many dinners and evenings in an identical apartment on the same floor.

Moreover, the Jerusalem restaurant where the movie shows Wilson and Gust meeting with an Israeli to buy $35 million in Soviet weapons, is a restaurant I visited for lunch with my partner and my Jerusalem friend who was formerly the Israeli consul general in San Francisco.  The restaurant was just inside the Jaffa Gate.  It was just as empty for us as it was in the movie, but the Arab food was great. We were unable to get any of a dozen taxis to take us anywhere afterwards because they were all Arabs and we were not gullible tourists who could be cheated out of taxi fare (Israel puts up with this shit just to let the Arabs keep their traditional culture).  Our host had to phone for a taxi.

Photo on the left is the real Congressman Charlie Wilson who served 24 years in the House.