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Klappentext "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"-- Maps Preface Chronology 1 The Warlord of Mazar 2 How to Meet a Warlord 3 The Approaching Storm 4 Raiders 5 The Last Line of Defense 6 The Evil Comes to America 7 The 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
