Karen Middleton
An Unwinnable War
MUP, 2011
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'.
“Middleton plays it pretty well down the middle, drawing on a wide range of first-hand sources and doing her best to show the historical context of unfolding events.”
About the Author
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
