An Unwinnable War: Australia In Afghanistan
By (Author) Karen Middleton
Melbourne University Press
Melbourne University Press
1st September 2011
Australia
General
Non Fiction
Modern warfare
International relations
Central / national / federal government policies
994.07
Paperback
304
Width 156mm, Height 234mm, Spine 31mm
508g
A decade on from the 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, Australians are embroiled in what they were told was a 'good' war, the nation's longest military conflict - the war in Afghanistan. This book charts for the first time the decisions, motives and influences that carried Australia into Afghanistan. Based on interviews with dozens of key political and military figures in Australia and abroad, the book looks at the role of domestic politics and the decision to also wage war in Iraq, and 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. And it confirms that if ever there is a good war, this one has become anything but.
Karen Middleton is a political journalist with more than two decades' experience reporting on national and international affairs in print and broadcast media. A former president of the Federal Parliamentary Press Gallery and a Churchill fellow, she is chief political correspondent with SBS Television, a long-time newspaper columnist and radio commentator and a panellist on the ABC's lnsiders program. Karen was in Washington DC on September 11, 2001, and reported from Afghanistan in 2007 and 2011