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 Strong: 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 Freedom: 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.
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