Robert Young Pelton
Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009The author of The World’s Most Dangerous Places: 5th Edition 
….The next morning, about 60 Afghan cavalry came thundering into the compound. Ten minutes later, another 40 riders galloped up. General Abdul Rashid Dostum had arrived.
“Our mission was simple,” another soldier says. “Support Dostum. They told us, ‘If Dostum wants to go to Kabul, you are going with him. If he wants to take over the whole country, do it. If he goes off the deep end and starts whacking people, advise higher up and maybe pull out.’ This was the most incredibly open mission we have ever done.”
“Dostum” is the mercurial, ex-Communist, Uzbek Afghan warlord, General Abdul Rashid Dostum.
Here are the links:
The Legend of Heavy D and the Boys: In the Field With an Afghan Warlord 
Incidentally, I read The World’s Most Dangerous Places in an earlier edition, back when Pelton’s uber-violence list was topped by Algeria, Colombia and several, broken down, West African nations. It’s a great book and a fun read that I have lent out to many of my students who had an all too idealistic and parochial view of the world. It cured a few of them.
