The Wiles of a Warlord

Mohammed Kabeer Marzban, by his own account, is a pleasant man. His people happily pay him taxes, he says, plead for him to serve as supreme judge and generally think he's a top-notch guy. When you ask Marzban what he actually does all day cloistered in his mud-brick compound in the garrison town of Khoja Bahauddin, he squints behind his trademark Ray-Bans, spits reflectively and answers, "I am a servant of my people." That's local spin for what Marzban really is: an old-fashioned warlord.

Afghanistan has thousands of these medieval figures who rule little fiefs with the aid...