When the US announced their intention to pull out of Afghanistan by September 2021, few anticipated how quickly the Taliban would overrun the Afghan National Security Forces. As Kabul fell two weeks before the deadline, those with reason to fear the new regime rushed to the airport desperate to find a way out. Seasoned Australian diplomat, Fred Smith, who like many had acquired a passion for the Afghan people, was sent to Kabul airport to help co-ordinate the evacuation of Australian citizens and the many Afghans who had worked for Australia. This is his first-hand account of the evacuation effort, a deeply personal view of a complex mission doomed from the outset to be a partial success. As honest as it is passionate, it’s an important record of a moment when Australia’s soldiers and diplomats did what they could in difficult circumstances.

“In Fred Smith’s hands, this insider account of the evacuation of Kabul is a rare bird; viscerally honest, packed with self-doubt, suffering and grace. Not just the facts but the feelings as the mission saved many but failed others. Profoundly moving.” Hugh Riminton

Author Biography

Fred Smith is the poet and storyteller of Australia’s mission in Afghanistan. He was the first Australian diplomat to be posted to Uruzgan in 2009, and the last to leave in 2013, returning to Kabul in 2020-21 in the lead up to the collapse of the Afghan republic. His album Dust of Uruzgan was on the iPods of every Australian soldier deployed. The lyrics to his song ‘Sappers Lullaby’ are engraved in marble at the Australian plot of the British War Cemetery in Kabul. His first book, The Dust of Uruzgan, was described as a “convincing a picture as we will ever have of the tragedy, hope, oddness and courage of Australia’s Uruzgan enterprise… an astonishingly vibrant piece of reportage from the heart of our longest war.” (Hugh Riminton, Political Editor, Channel 10)

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