Tom Hyland, International Editor for the Sunday Age, kindly sent the following email in response to Wednesday’s post Resources: Australian Counter-insurgency in Afghanistan. It is posted here with permission, edited slightly to present the links in the same format as the original post.

I’ve just come across your excellent list of resources on Australia and Afghanistan.

The lack of information here contrasts with what’s available from the Netherlands and which helps put Australia’s role in perspective.

There’s this:
3D ‘The next generation’. Lessons learned from Uruzgan for future operations
Netherlands Institute of International Relations
December 2011

This has excellent background, and highlights the early tension between the Dutch, Australians and US:
Mission Uruzgan: collaborating in multiple coalitions for Afghanistan
Amsterdam University Press
June 2012

An earlier TLO report is also useful:
The Dutch engagement in Uruzgan – TLO report 2010
The Liaison Office
May 2010

Here in Melbourne, Richard Tanter did great work setting this up:
Australia in Afghanistan: quick guide
The Nautilus Institute
October 2010

And forgive my journalistic preciousness, but Lateline’s report on the TLO/AusAID issue was an old story (worth re-telling nonetheless).

You read it here first:
Taliban far from defeated in Australian zone: report
April 22, 2012

And again here:
Independent analysis of Oruzgan mission axed
May 27, 2012

As for why there’s a paucity of reporting here, people in my business usually blame military and government obstruction – a valid complaint, up to a point.

The other side of the story is that editors, based on what they assume to be readers’ interests, are just not interested in the story.