The 'war on terror' in Afghanistan and beyond has been the longest foreign war in New Zealand history, yet most New Zealanders know almost nothing about their country's part in it.

For ten years, nearly everything controversial or potentially unpopular was kept secret, and obscured by a stead flow of military public relations stories.

Based on thousands of leaked NZ military and intelligence documents, extensive interviews with military and intelligence officers and eye-witness accounts from the soldiers on the ground, Hager tells the story of these years.