Dateline presenter and reporter Yalda Hakim travelled to Afghanistan to interview the man negotiating peace with the Taliban, former President Burhanuddin Rabbani, about the progress that's been made in the 10 years since the allied invasion.
But hours before her arrival, he was killed in a suicide bomb attack and she was instead attending his funeral.
It was part of Yalda's very personal experience returning to the country of her birth for Sunday's Dateline.
In a special edition of the program presented from Afghanistan, she finds despair about the future among ordinary Afghans, who live in a chaos where the Taliban still attracts both fear and support.
Inside one of the country's most notorious prisons, a failed suicide bomber tells her that he'd be happy for the west to face more terrorist attacks.
Sunday's Dateline also goes right into the Afghan battlefield with a brave team of US flying doctors as they rescue horrifically injured soldiers and civilians.
So has talking to the Taliban failed? And with the US withdrawal scheduled for 2014, what hope is there after 10 years of Operation Enduring Freedom?
