Taliban

Afghanistan a Decade on from September 11

How We Lost the War

By Sally Neighbour

"The vast majority of the Taliban hadn't been driven anywhere," says Lieven. "They went back to their villages to wait and see what would happen. That was our opportunity to make a change in Afghanistan, to ensure they didn't re-emerge. But over the next few years we made such a shambles of it on the ground that they all took up arms again." The American-led effort, enthusiasticall

Comment: Ten Years After Tampa

By Peter Mares

John Howard’s stand on the Tampa is generally seen in retrospect as a political masterstroke that stopped the boats and helped him to secure the 2001 federal election. But to leaf through newspaper clippings from those intense days of late August and early September 2001 is to be reminded that his government took a high-stakes gamble and came close to losing. “Refugee Deal a Shambles” w

Comment: Hazara Asylum Seekers

By Sally Neighbour

Yusuf Hamid was a shoemaker in the village of Kharaba in Ghazni Province, eastern Afghanistan. It was the time of the Taliban, as Afghans invariably refer to the years between 1996 and 2001 when the bearded talib, students from the Islamic madrassas strung along the Afghan–Pakistan border, imposed their draconian brand of Islamic law on Afghanistan.Hamid (not his real name) is a member of the minority Hazara, reviled by the Pashtun Ta

Comment: The Anzac Spirit

By Sally Neighbour

The tone, almost invariably, is one of awed and sentimental reverence, descending at times into jingoistic puffery. Without question, the Australians serving in Afghanistan deserve our admiration and respect. But gushing hyperbole only serves to distract and detract from what is needed most: a hard-headed, self-interested assessment of why our troops are the

Mahmoud Saikal and Kabul’s ‘New City’ Proposal

A Tale of Two Cities

By Christopher Kremmer

How like an architect to see the problems of one city as a reason for building another. It wasn’t his idea but Mahmoud Saikal – architect, refugee, ambassador and long-time resident of Walter Burley Griffin’s Canberra – understandably embraced it. The

Julian Assange’s WikiLeaks

The Man Who Fell to Earth

By John Birmingham

Semantics aside, it remained a benighted sinkhole, although nearly 1300 years of fierce parochialism and independence shone through even after Rahman’s conversion of the locals. During the Soviet occupation (1979–89), the area was renowned as a graveyard f

Asylum Seekers

Comment

By Robert Manne

The first boatpeople were South Vietnamese fleeing from the communist victory of 1975. Between 1976 and 1982, 2000 reached our shores. In order to stem the flow, the Fraser government accepted more than 50,000 Vietnamese from the archipelago of refugee camps in Thailand

'War' by Sebastian Junger

By John Birmingham

It might seem strange and contrary, but among the many surprising truths in Sebastian Junger’s brilliant evocation of 15 months, on and off, spent at the front in Afghanistan is the presence of love at the heart of war. The strong bond that can develop betwe

Afghanistan

Comment

By Hugh White

Few of us are pacifists, so most of us accept that these strategic decisions must sometimes be made. But, in Australia, we have not faced them for a long time. Not since Vietnam have Australian leaders, and Australian voters, had to take responsibility for deliberately

A Report From Afghanistan

Mission Drift

By Chris Masters

Dogs of War

By Charles Firth

In the advertising business, there is a phenomenon called the Puppy Dog Effect. When a firm is pitching several different concepts for a television commercial, they will often slip footage of a puppy dog into the mock-up of their favourite idea, even if the pr

The Politics of Art in Australia

A Law That Cannot Be Enforced

By Justin Clemens

Travels through a hibernating war

Winter in Afghanistan

By Debbie Whitmont

The Punishment of David Hicks

The Outcast of Camp Echo

By Alfred W McCoy

JUNE 2006 – On or about 11 January 2002, a small, slender 26-year-old Australian named David Hicks, recently captured fighting alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan, was one of the first detainees flown to Camp X-Ray at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. As a high-school dropout, former drug addict, sometime car thief, mercenary soldier in Kosovo, Taliban fighter against America, graduate of four Al Qaed

'Motherhood' by Anne Manne

Love Story. A vision of a world where adults and children are equals

By Maria Tumarkin

Before my daughter Billie was born almost nine years ago, there were all kinds of ways to insult me:Jenny Craig dropout; boring; mediocre; a lousy lay. Afterwards the only thing that really got to me was being called or thought of as a bad mother. Anxiety woul

Hardships of the Desert

By Azhar Abidi

On a Saturday morning in Marree, south of Lake Eyre and on the fringe of central Australian desert country, four generations of cameleers are waiting for the town’s annual camel race to begin. Aysha, 94, scrutinises the animals with a professional eye. She i