The Last Warlord: The Life and Legend of Dostum, the Afghan Warrior Who Led US Special Forces to Topple the Taliban Regime

Excellent Book to read. Gives us a better understanding of Warlord Dostum.

" It's time for a new generation who don't have blood on their hands to build our nation. Perhaps it is fitting that I am my people's last warlord. " - General Abdul Rashid dostum1)This book tells us a story of a man by the name of Abdul rashid dostum, an uzbek who was born in a poor peasant family in Afghanistan, but because of his stubborn nature and Secular credentials he reached to the position as one of the most powerful man in Afghanistan, and dostum fought against the dreaded Taliban to save his country from those religious fanatics.2) Abdul Rashid dostum was born in a family of peasants and his family worked as a sharecroppers on the lands of the Khan's of Afghanistan. From a very young age dostum showed his credentials as a fighter, and when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan to support the Communist government of Afghanistan and to stop the mujahedeens to take over the capital city Kabul, dostum joined the Afghan Communist army and fighted alongside with Soviets to defeat the fanatic mujahedeens.3) But when the Soviet Union was defeated by the combining forces of mujahedeens, Pakistani and Arab fanatics, the Communist government of Afghanistan fell down and afterwards the mujahedeens take over the control of the government.4) But after the fall of the Communist government, chaos prevailed in Afghanistan and in particular in Pashtun dominated southern afghanistan, where pashtun mujahedeens started raping men, women, children at will, and in this scenario born the movement of 'Taliban' who captured and killed the Pashtun mujahedeens commander's and conquered the whole southern Afghanistan.5) At first people in Afghanistan welcomed the Taliban for bringing safety and security in the country, but later on the same Taliban showed their true intentions when they started burning schools, banned girl education, stoning women for adultery and beating men for not growing beard and introduced other draconian Islamic laws.6) As Afghanistan is a multiethnic state and in the north lives the uzbeks, in Northeast are Persian tajiks, in the centre are the shiitte hazaras, and in the south lives the Pashtuns the largest ethnic community of Afghanistan. And it is the Pashtuns who dominated Afghanistan for many centuries.7) The problem in Afghanistan is that it was born not as a treaty amongst all these various ethnicities but it was the southern Pashtuns who conquered all the other races of Afghanistan and created the State of Afghanistan, and that's the reason because of which the uzbeks, tajiks, and hazaras came together and created the "Northern - Alliance" to fight against the Pashtun taliban.8) But it is a well known fact that the Pashtun taliban is in bed with the ISI of pakistan and because of this support they captured 90% of afganistan and only the north and northeast part remained free from their hands at that time. But this changed suddenly after 9/11. And as the person who is responsible for 9/11 is the guest of Taliban the notorious Osama bin laden. And when the president of United States told taliban to hand over osama and other Al-Qaeda terrorist the taliban leader mullah omar refused and told bluntly to Americans that Osama is last person to leave Afghanistan.9) After the refusal by Taliban the Americans needed an ally who is trust worthy and also reliable and since the lion of panjshir valley the great tajik commander ahmad Shah massoud was killed by the Al-Qaeda suicide bombers just two days before the incident of 9/11, the Americans selected the uzbeks warlord Abdul Rashid dostum as their proxy and later the combined forces of uzbeks warriors and american soldiers defeated the taliban badly.10) The Author had done a good amount of research before writing this book and he himself went to Afghanistan to meet Abdul Rashid dostum and he also travelled to various places which is related to dostum in afghanistan.11) The language of the book is very easy to read and the author also included the pictures of Abdul Rashid dostum in this book.12) I will recommend to Readers if you are interested in reading about Afghanistan and about afghan jihad and also about the men who defeated the dreaded Taliban then you can surely go for this wonderful book.My ratings : ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ( 5/5 )Table of contents :-------------------------------* The warlord of mazar* How to meet a warlord* The approaching storm* Raiders* Last line of defense* The evil comes to America* Search of a plan* Khoja doko village, 1954* The first battles* The soldier* The traitor* Khadija* Conspiracies* The warlord* The coup* Malik* The Americans* The offensive begins* Interview with a warlordI hope you like the review, thanks for reading, Jai Hind.