Word: warlord
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...ceremony in late July, Karzai witnessed the graduation of the first 300 recruits from a basic-training course conducted by Green Berets. His Deputy Defense Minister, General Atiqullah Barialai, has just submitted a proposal to disarm the warlords' troops and either make them soldiers or find them other work. (Barialai also wants a bigger army than the 60,000 envisioned by the Americans; his immediate boss, Fahim, wants any force to include his troops.) The U.S. trainers, at least, are highly motivated to succeed, knowing their homecoming depends on it. Says McDonnel: "If you ask me to compare this...
...province of Paktia?Raz Mohammad Delili?is a poised Afghan with a law degree and a formal appointment by the government of President Hamid Karzai. But a few kilometers outside the provincial capital, there's another center of power: Pacha Khan Zadran, arguably Afghanistan's most erratic warlord, whose 3,000-strong army patrols the jagged, mountainous routes from Gardez to the tribal areas of Pakistan. They're hunting for al-Qaeda members on the run and report on their luck to Charlie and his American colleagues on a daily basis...
...August, Karzai said he wanted Zadran arrested for murder, but the warlord is unfazed. "Karzai wants to arrest me? He has mental problems," he says, holding court before nephews, cousins and Kalashnikov-wielding guards. "Look at Karzai," he bellows. "He has arrested himself. He has surrounded himself with 30 American guards who go everywhere with him." The congregation chuckles and Zadran keeps riffing. "The loya jirga was not a real loya jirga. It was a D.C. loya jirga. He is not the people's choice. Karzai must resign...
...Without a strong army, Karzai has little chance of taming warlords like Zadran. And the U.S. still needs him to hunt for al-Qaeda (although officially a top American diplomat in Kabul says the U.S. military is no longer cooperating with Zadran). "Al-Qaeda is hunkered down waiting for an opening," says another diplomat in Kabul, "and a defection from a regional warlord could provide the cover that would allow these guys to climb out of their holes...
...cool nights of fall settled on northeast Afghanistan, Ahmed Shah Massoud was barely hanging on. His summer offensive had been a bust. An attempt to capture the city of Taloqan, which he had lost to the Taliban in 2000, ended in failure. But old allies, like the brutal Uzbek warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum, had returned to the field, and Massoud still thought the unpopularity of the Taliban might yet make them vulnerable. "He was telling us not to worry, that we'd soon capture Kabul," says Shah Pacha, an infantry commander in the Northern Alliance...