Charlie Wilson's War/Funny

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Charlie has to juggle a meeting with Gust alongside his secretaries updating him about some prosecutor named Rudy Giuliani going after him for his... 'extracurricular' activities. Trying to hide the possible scandal from Gust is fruitless because Gust bugged the bottle of Scotch he just gave the congressman.
  • Charlie and Gust travel to Israel to see about securing Soviet made weapons — to avoid any direct connection to American armaments — but that means getting them from Arab nations. So...

Zvi: You want me to steer Israel towards an arms deal with Egypt, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia?
Charlie: Yes.
Zvi: Well, just one or two problems with that, just off the top of my head.
Charlie: Zvi...
Zvi: Afghanistan and Pakistan don't recognize our right to exist! We just got done fighting a war against Egypt, and everyone who has ever tried to kill me or my family has been trained in Saudi Arabia!
Gust: That's not true, Zvi. Some of them were trained by us.

  • Hell, pretty much every time Gust speaks is a Crowning Moment of Funny.
  • The belly dance.

"That's not any belly dance I'm familiar with."

    • Also counts as Lampshade Hanging, as real Egyptian belly dancing is nothing like that.
  • "I cannot just call up a judge and tell him what to do." "Why?" "Well, 'cause it's against a shitload of really good laws, Gary."
  • In the book, a retired colonel proudly shows off his newly-developed 30mm anti-material rifle, has an accidental discharge and blows up a Texaco gas station.