We will clear out the Taliban from Faryab! booms the moustached 61-year-old, a Macy's jacket slung over his shoulders despite the sweltering heat of Jowzjan province, a stone's throw from Turkmenistan and neighbouring Faryab province where Islamist insurgents have been plaguing government forces.
Faryab is where the general has decided to make his next visit as vice-president -- a position far removed from his days as a feared warlord with a reputation for brutality earned during the civil war of the 1990s.
Once I go there, God willing, I will encourage the people and they will get it back from the hands of the Taliban, he bellows. You will see - even the women will be throwing rocks at the Taliban. I have more than a million supporters there.
Even among an Afghan political class that has welcomed several warlords into the fold, Dostum, the uncontested leader of the Uzbek ethnic minority, stands out for his showmanship.
Guests at his headquarters in Sheberghan, the capital of Jowzjan, are greeted by two-by-three metre portraits of the general hung on the walls -- as well as smaller versions on patches stitched onto the shoulders of his personal guard.