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The Sunday Magazine

Looking back on the war in Afghanistan

Kevin Patterson is a doctor and a writer; in 2007, he volunteered at a Canadian military hospital on the Kandahar Air Field. He mined that experience for his new novel, News from the Red Desert. It's a gripping account of the moral complexities faced by war correspondents, soldiers and generals caught up in the absurdity of war.
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Canadian soldiers of the Princess Patricia Canadian Light Infantry leave the flight line at the Kandahar, Afghanistan air base, March 26, 2006. (Murray Brewster/Canadian Press)
Sunday Edition17:37Looking back on the war in Afghanistan

15 years ago this month, Canada announced it would join the war in Afghanistan. 

It became this country's longest war, and the largest deployment of Canadian Armed Forces members since the Second World War. But the legacy of Canada's mission in Afghanistan is far from certain. 

Canadian doctor and writer Kevin Patterson volunteered as a civilian physician on the Kandahar Airfield base in 2007. His new novel is called News from the Red Desert. It takes us back to those disorienting days in the middle of the war, and into the minds of the people living and working on the Kandahar base. 

He spoke to guest host Laura Lynch, who was embedded with the Canadian Armed Forces in Kandahar, about media coverage of the war and whether Canada's mission in Afghanistan was worthwhile. 

Click the button above to hear Laura's conversation with Kevin Patterson. 

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