The Last Warlord
The Life and Legend of Dostum, the Afghan Warrior Who Led US Special Forces to Topple the Taliban Regime
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- $19.99
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- $19.99
Publisher Description
Chronicling the spectacular rise to power of General Abdul Rashid Dostum, this is an intimate profile of the one of the most powerful warlords to have dominated Afghanistan in the years since the Soviet withdrawal in the late 1980s. His rise from simple peasant villager to warrior against the repressive policies of the Taliban and Al Qaeda is told by one of the few outsiders to be accepted into Dostum’s stronghold in the northern deserts of Afghanistan. Thanks to this unprecedented access, author Brian Glyn Williams was able to conduct lengthy interviews with Dostum and his family, as well as his subcommanders, local chieftains, mullahs, Taliban enemies, prisoners of war, and women’s rights activists. What emerges is an intensely personal account of the Mongol warlord, detailing his childhood, motivations, hopes for his country, and conviction that it is time for a new generation of Western-trained technocrats to shape his country’s destiny. With the drawing down of U.S. troops in 2014 and Dostum poised to reenter the world stage to fight a resurgent Taliban, this timely analysis 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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Afghanistan is a challenging place to do research, and the dangers inherent in writing a biography of a mercurial warlord while using as one's primary source an extended interview with the man himself are obvious. But Williams, who worked for the CIA in Afghanistan, is not your typical history professor, and his knowledge of and access to Uzbek Afghan culture allows him to craft a credible and captivating narrative. He admits that his account "doubtless contains stories that are half legend," and while his book might not pass muster in an academic seminar, it does have the makings of a Hollywood biopic. Dostum, a larger-than-life figure in command of an ethnic militia in Northern Afghanistan, has been called the most powerful warlord in history, and is alternately revered as a pragmatic modernizer and champion of women's rights who did more than anyone else to bring down the Taliban, and reviled as a sadist who slaughters his enemies by the thousands and frightens grown men to death with his laugh. Williams takes the hagiographic route, but Dostum's story of never-ending battles, assassination attempts, and alliances forming and breaking in the blink of an eye is fascinating, whether he is regarded as hero or villain. 16-page color photo insert.
