The Last Warlord: The Life and Legend of Dostum, the Afghan Warrior Who Led US Special Forces to Topple the Taliban Regime

342 Pages·2013·3.59 MB·English

by  Brian Glyn Williams PhD

Copyright © 2013 by Brian Glyn Williams
All rights reserved
Published by Chicago Review Press, Incorporated
814 North Franklin Street
Chicago, Illinois 60610
ISBN 978-1-61374-800-8
Interior design: PerfecType, Nashville, TN
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Williams, Brian Glyn.
The last warlord : the life and legend of Dostum, the Afghan warrior who led US special forces to topple
the Taliban regime / Brian Glyn Williams, PhD.
pages cm
Summary: “In The Last Warlord, scholar Brian Glyn Williams takes Westerners inside the world of
general Abdul Rashid Dostum, one of the most powerful of the Afghan warlords who have dominated the
country since the Soviet invasion. Based on lengthy interviews with Dostum and his family and
subcommanders, as well as local chieftains, mullahs, elders, Taliban enemies and prisoners of war, and
women’s rights activists, The Last Warlord tells the story of Dostum’s rise to power from peasant villager to
the man who fought a long and bitter war against the Taliban and Al Qaeda fanatics who sought to repress
his people. The book details how, after 9/11, the CIA contacted the mysterious Mongol warrior to help US
Special Forces wage a covert, horse-mounted war in the mountains of Afghanistan that ended in a stunning
victory; how Dostum was later marginalized by US and Afghan leaders; and how sensational media
accounts have made him the object of rampant mythologizing. With the United States drawing down troops
in 2014 and Dostum poised to re-enter the world stage to fight a resurgent Taliban, The Last Warlord
provides important historical context to the controversy swirling around Afghanistan’s warlord culture and
is an essential contribution to the debate on Afghanistan’s future”-- Provided by publisher.
ISBN 978-1-61374-800-8 (hardback) 1. Dustum, ‘Abd al-Rashid, 1954– 2. Afghanistan—Politics and
government—1989–2001. 3. Afghanistan—Politics and government—2001– 4. Warlord-ism—Afghanistan
—History 5. Taliban. I. Title.
DS371.33.D8W55 2013
958.104’742092--dc23
[B]
2013008742
Printed in the United States of America
5 4 3 2 1
For my friends from Indiana, Wisconsin, and London:
Forbes McIntosh, Chuk Starett, Dominique Lawrenz, Sean Buckman, Ed Lee, Mike Waterfield, Ray
Szylko, Mikol Forth, Shane and Ben Soldinger, Chee McCardle, Jake Blavat, Mike McCue, Anton
Garcia, Colleen Kanzora, and Carrie Jacob.
“It’s time for a new generation who don’t have blood on their hands to build our nation. Perhaps
it is fitting that I am my people’s last warlord.”
—GENERAL ABDUL RASHID DOSTUM
CONTENTS
________________
Maps
Preface
Chronology
1 The Warlord of Mazar
2 How to Meet a Warlord
3 The Approaching Storm
4 Raiders
5 Last Line of Defense
6 The Evil Comes to America
7 Search for a Plan
8 Khoja Doko Village, 1954
9 The First Battles
10 The Soldier
11 The Traitor
12 Khadija
13 Conspiracies
14 The Warlord
15 The Coup
16 Malik
17 The Americans
18 The Offensive Begins
19 Interview with a Warlord
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index

PREFACE
________________
R
ESEARCHING THIS BOOK on General Abdul Rashid Dostum
(pronounced Doe-STUM), one of Afghanistan’s most powerful and
controversial warlords, was the greatest challenge of my life. To collect Dostum’s
story I traveled to Afghanistan four times and crossed fifteen of its war-torn
provinces. There I interviewed Taliban prisoners of war, anti-Taliban field
commanders, newly liberated Afghan women, US soldiers, village elders, and
General Dostum himself.
The most difficult task I faced was getting my subject to open up and tell me
his story. Some of the difficulties came from Dostum’s reluctance to share his
account of hidden intrigues, bygone legends, and past betrayals with an outsider
like me. In Afghan-Uzbek warrior culture, victories and personal triumphs are
celebrated; personal tragedies, dark secrets, and defeats are not.
Other difficulties stemmed from Dostum’s background as an Afghan fighting
man. His mind was focused on the logistics and immediacy of warfare, not his
role in the greater flow of history. While Dostum might remember the effects of a
B-52 bomber clearing Taliban from the path of an Uzbek cavalry charge, he
typically forgot the number of horsemen riding alongside him.
The very specifics that are the lifeblood of a historian are of little
consequence to those focused on staying alive in battle. While Afghans I spoke
with were wonderful storytellers, they rarely offered the linear, fact-filled history
Westerners expect. For these reasons the story of Dostum’s rise to power, love of
a woman, betrayal, and phoenixlike resurrection to free his people from the
Taliban doubtless contains stories that are half legend. But for all their flaws,
these accounts are a unique historical record and provide the bones for this story.
I should also point out that I am a historian by training, not an investigative
journalist, so I was not able to fully investigate all of the mysteries concerning
Dostum’s remarkable life. Considering the difficult conditions I was working in,
there are bound to be questions about Dostum that I have not been able to