Dostum is a “good guy” (relatively speaking).
“Dostum was a key ally of U.S. forces in the fight against the Taliban regime in late 2001”
I remember reading at the time, he was invaluable to us and was very effective against the Taliban.
He was also the leader of a city (Mazar-i-Shariff? I could be wrong about the name), that he ran his own way, and it was not controlled by the Taliban. In his city girls were allowed to go to school, unlike in the Taliban controlled areas and economy was doing well. While he may have been a “strong arm” man, but I think if he had been elected President of Afghanistan, he would have completely eradicated the Taliban by now and Afghanistan would have been much further along.
Things are not all as they seem, here is another relevant article.
Intrigue takes Afghanistan to the brink
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/JB06Df01.html