>I was just reading an article about the makeup of the
>Northern Alliance, and this one got me
>curious...anyone know anything about these guys?
>"Former communists" turned what?
>
>"óJimbush-e-Milli-Movement, led by former communist
>Gen. Rashid Dostum. Ethnic Uzbeks."
Well, I don't know much, but I know Russia's Putin, Turkey's Ecevit and Uzbekistan's Karimov all smile on Dostum (who used to be Najibullah's top brass). 'Trouble is, Tajikistan's Rakhmanov won't have a bar of him on account of when Dostum's not shooting at Talibs, he's taking potshots at Tajiks, and Iran doesn't like him because when he's not a commie he's a Sunni. Dostum started up the Junbish-i Milli-yi Islami (National Islamic Movement), based on the northern city of Mazar-i Sharif, the one recovered (again) from the Taliban over the weekend. He's probably the best armed of the Alliance constituents, but he doesn't look the ideal consensus man.
Cheers, Rob.