Last Warlord by Williams, Brian Glyn

The Last Warlord tells the story of the legendary Afghan warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum, a larger-than-life figure who guided US Special Forces to victory over the Taliban after 9/11. Having gained unprecedented access to General Dostum, his family and his sub-commanders, as well as local chieftains, mullahs, elders, Taliban prisoners and women’s rights activists, scholar Brian Glyn Williams paints a fascinating portrait of this Northern Alliance Uzbek commander who has been shrouded in mystery and contradicting hearsay. In contrast to sensational media accounts that have mythologized the ‘bear of a man with a gruff laugh’ who ‘some Uzbeks swear, has on occasion frightened people to death’, Williams carefully chronicles Dostum’s rise from peasant villager to Uzbek leader and skilled strategist who has fought a long and bitter war against the Taliban and Al Qaeda fanatics that have sought to repress his people.