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
4.3
118 ratings 18 reviews
       The Last Warlord tells the story of the brotherhood forged in the mountains of Afghanistan between elite American Green Berets and Dostum that is told in the movie 12 The Declassified True Story of the Horsesoldiers The Last Warlord tells the spellbinding 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 and his family and subcommanders, 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. Also revealed is Dostum’s surprising history as a defender of women’s rights and religious moderation.             In riveting detail The Last Warlord spotlights the crucial Afghan contribution to Operation Enduring how the CIA contacted the mysterious warrior Dostum to help US Special Forces wage a covert war in the mountains of Afghanistan, how respect and even friendship quickly grew between the Afghan and American fighting men, and how Dostum led his nomadic people charging into war the same way his ancestors had—on horseback. The result was one of the most decisive campaigns in the entire war on terror. The Last Warlord shows that, far from serving as an exotic backdrop for American heroics, it was these horse-mounted descendents of the Mongol warrior Genghis Khan that allowed the American military to overthrow the Taliban regime in a matter of weeks. . 
Genres: HistoryNonfictionMilitary HistoryMilitary FictionWarBiography
352 Pages

Community Reviews:

5 star
59 (50%)
4 star
42 (36%)
3 star
12 (10%)
2 star
3 (3%)
1 star
2 (2%)

Readers also enjoyed

Other books by Brian Glyn Williams

Lists with this book

Horse Soldiers: The Extraordinary Story of a Band of US Soldiers Who Rode to Victory in Afghanistan
Khost
Ibil
Afghan War Books
86 books • 47 voters
The Great War of Our Time: The CIA's Fight Against Terrorism--From al Qa'ida to ISIS
Spy... for Nobody! Sixteen Years in the Syrian Intelligence
Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001
The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia
Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World
The Empire of the Steppes: A History of Central Asia
Central Asia
281 books • 87 voters
The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11
Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001
The 9/11 Commission Report: Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States