An Unwinnable War: Australia in Afghanistan

An Unwinnable War charts the motives, ambitions and negotiations that carried Australia into Afghanistan.

A decade on from the 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, Australians are embroiled in one of the nation’s longest military conflict-the war in Afghanistan.

An Unwinnable War charts the motives, ambitions and negotiations that carried Australia into Afghanistan: from the then Prime Minister John Howard’s presence in Washington DC on September 11, 2001 to the ’transition’ plan to hand security to Afghan forces - all played out in the wake of increasing casualties.

Based on interviews with key political and military figures in Australia and abroad, An Unwinnable War lays bare the tensions between political and military decision-making, the nature and potency of the US alliance and the influence of individual personalities in charting Australia’s course in what was once dubbed the ’good war’.

Karen Middleton is a political journalist with more than 20 years of experience reporting on national and international affairs in print and broadcast media. She is the chief political correspondent with SBS Television and a former president of the Federal Parliamentary Press Gallery.