Afghan warlords will fight if U.S. gives weapons

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By Jason Motlagh and Sara A. Carter The WASHINGTON TIMES

SHIBERGHAN, Afghanistan | Afghanistan's long-established warlords and tribal leaders are offering to step up their fight against the Taliban and al Qaeda if the United States sends them more money and weapons, reprising the role they played before 2001.

The offer could be tempting to President Obama, who is being urged to build up U.S. troop strength in the country in spite of rising domestic opposition to the war, especially in the aftermath of a fraud-tainted Afghan presidential election.

Afghans who led ethnic militias against the Soviet occupation two decades ago say more U.S. troops would not be needed if the United States provided them with financial and material backing.

"If you support me, I will destroy the Taliban and al Qaeda," Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum told The Washington Times in an interview at his northern stronghold. "I don't want to be a minister, not even the defense minister. I need to be with my soldiers. Give me the task and I will do it."

Other ethnic leaders have made similar offers, but their support is problematic.

Gen. Dostum is one of Afghanistan's most notorious warlords -- a Russian-educated former defense minister who turned against the Soviet Union in the 1980s but became a key figure in the Russian-backed fight against the Taliban a decade later.

The U.S. backed him after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, but human rights groups say he was responsible for numerous war crimes, including alleged links to the suffocation of about 2,000 Taliban prisoners of war in truck containers.

Banished by President Hamid Karzai to Turkey after he got into a political squabble with a rival, Gen. Dostum was invited back before the Aug. 20 presidential election to deliver hundreds of thousands of ethnic Uzbek votes to Mr. Karzai.

More than two dozen other warlords still hold significant power in Afghanistan. They include provincial governors Atta Mohammed Noor, Gul Agha Sherzai and Ismail Khan.

Several of these former mujahedeen, as the anti-Soviet freedom fighters were known, said they also want a shift in U.S. strategy.