men and women currently whose lives are at risk in afghanistan on behalf of this president? joining us to mix it up, "washington post" editorial writer jonathan cape part and editorial page editor for the washington examiner. obviously, mark tapscott, no more critical a decision the president will make than to put the soldiers of his or her country at risk. are you -- how do you view the most recent events? >> well, i think that is obviously the most important decision a president can make. and president obama came into office with that decision having been made for him by president bush. and face the question for himself and his administration, do we reverse it? he had all but said that he would reverse it before he was elected. once we got into office we began to see paralysis by analysis and that's continued to this day. there has been a decision to stay, a modest increase in troops but we still have the paralysis by analysis that is characteristic of people who are not sure that they are doing the right thing. >> jonathan? >> look, when president bush was trying to figur

to a afghanistan troops strategy. no comments today confirming nor denying it, i would be interested and it does show the world is deep division in the policy debate. >> the white house is not quarrelling with any of this substance, as i understand. particularly from general petraeus and a sense of frustration on all sides. >> what comes across is the president, according to bob woodward, everything being hidden. the president has set july of next year as the date at which he wants to begin the drawdown of some american troops. the really interesting thing, i think, is the president has everyone as part of that discussion and they are signed up to race it's paid to document. agreeing on what they would would not do, giving bob woodward access, making it available to the rest of the world. the generals being on the same page as the president. stay with us on bbc world news. still become, britain has announced a replacement for the armored vehicle that others call a mobile copy. first, the chinese prime minister is thre

troops is under way in afghanistan, even as we speak. there are, in fact, hundreds of troops trying to establish a foothold near kandahar city, which is, of course, where the taliban movement was born. now, elements of the 101st airborne are involved in this operation, which is designed to prevent insurgents from moving fighters, explosives and drugs into those taliban strongholds. nbc tom as peljoins us live from kabul and tell us a little bit about this struggle and how it's likely to shape up there, tom. >> hi, chris. well, as you mentioned, it's the 101st airborne with hundreds of afghan troops and they're moving west of kandahar city. now, the objective is to deny the taliban safe havens in those areas. it's part of an ongoing operation, really, that has been happening for the last couple months trying to sweep the taliban not only out of kandahar, but helman province and southern afghanistan in general. most of the attention in afghanistan today is focused on elections scheduled for this saturday morning. and we have seen the last

he's deployed in afghanistan. he's in the front lines. there's a rogue sergeant out there that is apparently killing innocent victims, and my son found out about this, and they're threatening him because -- he might say something to somebody. i said, you've got to get him out of there. you need to call me back, please. >> reporter: at the command center at fort lewis, the headquarters for their son's division, winfield says he finally got a sergeant on the line but with a disappointing response. >> the sergeant came back to me and said, you know, it's a terrible situation, but from our end, it's a he said/she said conversation and there's nothing we can do about it. >> reporter: nothing they can do about it? meantime in afghanistan, other soldiers later said the sergeant, gibbs became suspicious of a dam winfield. >> did you think he was serious about discussions he may have to take out winfield? >> oh, [ bleep ] yeah, for sure. >> so you didn't take that as a joke or like maybe he was just talking or -- >> he doesn't bull [ bleep ]. he d

you know wants to control all of afghanistan and they'll kill whoever they need to to get that. well there's clearly a difference in degree and a lot of that is based on the society and the norms because you know when the extremists in this country haven't had those legal checks and balances they have gone much further we don't have to go back to foreigner history to see the lynchings in the south as an example of what these. reactionary right wing fanatics will do in order to push their brand of hatred and ideological rigidity but of course you can also can't say that there isn't violence in the american right wing because of course there is i mean there you look at the clinic bombings clinic bombings and abortion doctors killed and i detail in a book a series of shootings and destinations from right wing figures people who following glenn beck and get riled up because they think that america is going to become a communist kenyan socialist state thanks to obama and the democrats and you have right now and this is pretty scary stuff you have a nationwide shortage of ammunition a

afghanistan and why we talk about the cia a soldier or b. as a muslim country and one of the leading muslim countries in the world heavily participated at the time on the war so here we have some very simple powerful muslim country involved in the war were you receiving weapons from the u.s. no it's not talk about the arab when we were. we just get the weapons if you ask me of my own experience it's from two main parties you know i am my personal experience here i thought would just that i didn't have any now he's very famous because of what's called a kind of network so our weapons it used to be from his like from his commanders and these people you know on the frontline and from. as well the. libyans we used to cooperate with him a lot so it's that if you talk about morality i believe if you ask any single arab or muslim you know he's not a gun and he participate in the jihad he will give you the name of a local commander so you never directly met any cia representative in afghanistan i've never ever seen anyone. for a minute i've seen eit

meanwhile pakistan has shut a vital supply route for coalition forces in afghanistan the closure has stranded one hundred fuel tankers and trucks stopping them from crossing the border into the war torn country it's seen as retaliation for a nato helicopter attack on suspected militants from pakistan from pakistani militants with karate claiming the raid killed three of its soldiers and wounded three others the alliance expressed condolences and said the incident is now being investigated despite the supply blockade being a reminder of the leverage pakistan has over the us the number of missile strikes and helicopter raids against suspected militants in pakistan's border tribal zone has increased pakistani officials say the attacks violate international law and should be stopped pakistani political expert told r.t. that the problem could be solved by having the tribes represented in the decision making structures something that. you need to expect that box on could go actually more further ahead and completely shut down nato supplies because there's a strong feeling in that box down

paula talking afghanistan's biggest jail many of the five thousand prisoners here are doing time for drug smuggling and drug use but their knocks are not a sure safe way of keeping the drugs out. these are the different kinds of drugs we collected over the past years. this is a mix of all your contacts. but then all of this is opium and. this. is the kind of tricks drugs and side of calm family members coming to visit bring these with them we've found drugs in shoes over the years prison guards have been charged with mending a hand. up the really good of you know it's true when i joined a few years ago lots of dollars were involved in smuggling drugs into the jail they are not very good. enough so there are a lot joining the produce truth out of the people join the police to solve themselves but the ministry of cantona katic insists it's now got a hold on the problem before the police can become a police he get tested he will have certain tests before coming to before going through the exercise part of our becoming a police sergeant. this is something that has been developed an army

and britain special envoy to afghanistan steps down amid speculation he was driven out because of his continued criticism of the military campaign. twelve midnight in moscow i matras are good to have you with us here on our team our top story prosecutors are investigating the crash landing of a crippled russian airliner in the northwest of the country all eighty one people aboard had a miraculous escape when the plane overshot in a bad airstrip on tuesday and slammed into trees artie's tom barton has the details . new record kilis that's was experts from passengers a calling the crash landing of this plane in the russian taiga without anyone injured we see no pool so we learned in the streets and ended up in the woods emergency crews arrived to find two week everything was fine as to the still to this to mislead people if you want the professionalism of through here you would not be standing here. the tupolev one fine full was flying at ten thousand meters on its way to moscow from russia's far east when there was a massive electrical failure the plane lost all to mattick navigation a

border with afghanistan more than russia doesn't border of afghanistan so there's a number of. soviet republics central asian republics that are between afghanistan and russia but you know the problem is the trash doesn't have. truly border the well guarded border between between russia itself and cause a stun so that influx of drugs coming from again a stern because not of a guest of an order was a ten x. and they smuggle drugs into to jigger stone sometimes is just one family divided by a river that. crosses the contras and then the traffic gets into russia and then after having affected russia it gets further into europe so you see european countries are pretty affected by that russian law enforcement to my mind is one of the most effective in the world. and in fighting against drugs a jew to the specifics all for the situation inside russia russian drug enforcement administration isn't corrupt you see it so unlike many other countries like in latin america where you see that common business between police and drugs in russia i have never found i've been studying the issue f

military experience in iraq could be transferable to afghanistan the negative experience in iraq has been largely ignored it seems like some gys developed a horrible habit during that tour of duty in iraq that is shooting civilians for fun and when they got it transferred to afghanistan one of those loose cannons set up a kill team in stryker brigade in kandahar who right now are under investigation for killing afghan civilians just for scores as a result it has delivered and irreparable damage to the u.s. image abroad and specifically created yet another tool for taliban recruiting against the foreign occupation in afghanistan. and we've got more perspective from afghanistan coming your way later here on r t outspoken war critic matthew hoh says hunting down the taliban is a waste of u.s. military and financial resources you can watch the full interview with him in the next hour here's a quick preview. one of the larger problems i think with u.s. foreign policy particular national security policies are not consistent if they're if we are in afghanistan because of al qaeda and if the

we'll bring you even more perspective from afghanistan later on r.t. outspoken war critic matthew hoh says hunting down the taliban is a waste of u.s. military and financial resources you can watch the full interview with him in about fifteen minutes here's a preview. one of the larger problems i think with us foreign policy particular national security policies are not consistent if they're if we are in afghanistan because of al qaeda and if there are only fifty to one hundred members of al qaeda in afghanistan then why are we pulling out of iraq where there are one thousand to two thousand members why do we see and we need to keep. one hundred thousand troops in afghanistan when al qaeda operations come out of somalia and yemen so that consistency is not there in our in our foreign policy particularly in our now security policy and that's very worrisome to me because you don't have consistency if you don't have good critical thought if you don't have a degree of intellectual honesty in your policymaking you are going to have bad policy and you're goi

we will disrupt, dismantle, and defeat al qaeda while preventing afghanistan from again serving as a base for terrorists. and because of our drawdown in iraq, we are now able to apply the resources necessary to go on offense. in fact, over the last 19 months nearly a dozen al qaeda leaders and hundreds of al qaeda's extremist allies have been killed or captured around the world. within afghanistan, i've ordered the deployment of additional troops who, under the command of general david petraeus are fighting to break the taliban's momentum. as with the surge in iraq, these forces will be in place for a limited time to provide space for the afghans to build their capacity and secure their own future. but, as was the case in iraq, we can't do for afghans what they must ultimately do for themselves. that's why we're training afghan security forces and supporting a political resolution to to afghanistan's problems. next august, we will begin a transition to afghan responsibility. the pace of our troop reductions will be determined by conditions on the ground, and our support for afghanist

troops pledging to pull out of afghanistan by next summer many fear the elections show the contrary is far from stable and still plagued by corruption charges paul the slayer is in the afghan capital for us. by and large this was certainly not a successful day for afghan democracy there was an extremely ill voter turnout with some polling stations reporting that less than a quarter the number of people turned out today compared to the number of people casting their ballot last year during the presidential elections the first results will come in next week wednesday with the final tape tally been tabled at the end of october but these certainly won't be elections associated with violence more than eleven people were killed throughout the course of the day more than a thousand polling stations were i'm able to open the doors particularly in far flung rural communities where the taliban has strong control we've also heard some of the electoral complaints commission and it says that what the course of the day it's received numerous reports on irregularities some of the complaints were by p

troops pledging to pull out of afghanistan by next summer many fear the election show the contrary is far from stable and still plagued by corruption artie's paulus leer is in the afghan capital. by and large this was certainly not a successful day for afghan democracy there was an extremely ill voter turnout with some polling stations reporting that less than a quarter the number of people turned out today compared to the number of people casting their ballot last year during the presidential elections the first results will come in next week wednesday with the final tape tally been tabled at the end of october but these certainly won't be elections associated with violence more than a thousand polling stations where i'm able to open the doors particularly in far flung rural communities where the taliban has strong control we've also heard some of the electoral complaints commission and it says it throughout the course of the day it was seen to numerous reports on irregularities some of the complaints were by people saying that they saw election officials accepting bribes some of the

pledging to pull its troops out of afghanistan by next summer many fear the elections show the country is far from stable and still plagued by corruption artie's paullus leader is in the afghan capital for us. by and large this was certainly not a successful day for afghan democracy there was an extremely voter turnout with some polling stations reporting that less than a quarter the number of people turned out today compared to the number of people casting their ballot last year during the presidential elections the first results will come in next week wednesday with the final tape tally been tabled at the end of october but these certainly will be elections associated with violence more than a thousand polling stations where i'm able to open the doors particularly in far flung rural communities where the taliban has strong control we've also heard some of the electoral complaints commission and it says it throughout the course of the day it received numerous reports on irregularities some of the complaints were by people saying that they saw election officials accepting bribes some o

pledging to pull its troops out of afghanistan by next summer many fear the elections show the country is far from stable and still plagued by corruption party's policies leary's in the afghan capital for us. by and large this was certainly not a successful day for afghan democracy there was an extremely ill voter turnout with some polling stations reporting that less than a quarter the number of people turned out today compared to the number of people casting their ballot last year during the presidential elections the first results will come in next week wednesday with the final tape tally been tabled at the end of october but these certainly will be elections associated with violence more than a thousand polling stations where i'm able to open the doors particularly in far flung rural communities where the taliban has strong control we've also heard some of the electoral complaints commission and it says that what the course of the day it received numerous reports on irregularities some of the complaints were by people saying that they saw election officials accepting bribes some of

pledging to pull its troops out of afghanistan by next summer many fear the elections show the country is far from stable and still plagued by corruption artie's policy is in the afghan capital for us. by and large this was certainly not a successful day for afghan democracy there was an extremely ill voter turnout with some polling stations reporting that less than a quarter the number of people turned out today compared to the number of people casting their ballot last year during the presidential election is the first results will come in next week wednesday with the final tape tally been tabled at the end of october but these certainly will be elections associated with violence more than a thousand polling stations where i'm able to open the doors particularly in far flung rule communities where the taliban has strong control we've also heard some of the electoral complaints commission and it's is that what the course of the day it received numerous reports on irregularities some of the complaints were by people saying that they saw election officials accepting bribes some of the r

caller: killing 3000 innocent women and children a month in afghanistan. afghanistan. karzai's brother is so corrupt and c.i.a.-backed, by the way. i want to know after 9/11, what gave us the right to attack afghan, pakistan, yemen, somalia, iraq, and you notice there has never been a trial. this i would like to see the ksm trial as soon as possible because i would like to know if we it actually raped and killed the children or we did not. host: let us go to jasper, tennessee. good morning. caller: i just got done reading sebastian young girl's book. book. er's the contractor that we are giving the money to talk about corruption. it is ridiculous. why are we blaming -- we can track the money from iran because we want to go to war with iran but we are fighting the saudi arabian and pakistan, our allies. host: book she is talking about is "war"from sebastian junger. the brother of hamid karzai being probed by u.s. prosecutors. they did not know where he may fit into the web of illicit business dealings. but officials say they mapped to 3000 of hours of wiretaps and infor

pledging to pull its troops out of afghanistan by next summer many for the elections show the country is far from stable and still plagued by corruption policy is in the afghan capital for us. by and large this was certainly not a successful day for afghan democracy there was an extremely ill voter turnout with some polling stations reporting that less than a quarter the number of people turned out today compared to the number of people casting their ballot last year during the presidential elections the first results will come in next week wednesday with the final tape tally been tabled at the end of october but these certainly won't be elections associated with violence more than a thousand polling stations where i'm able to open the doors particularly in far flung rule communities where the taliban has strong control we've also heard some of the electoral complaints commission and it's is that what the course of the day it received numerous reports on irregularities some of the complaints were by people saying that they saw election officials accepting bribes some of the reports we

that's why we have to have a withdrawal date for the troops in afghanistan. according to bob woodward that's how the president feels. >> reporter: i wonder about the troops serving over there and those who have served there and made large sacrifices, what they think when they hear words like that. we are take being at face value that everything woodward says in the book is correct. for the president to put politics above victory, and he's very clear about that, it is about politics it has to be disconcerting as the ambassador suggested not just to our military people but to everybody in the united states. megyn: simon, apparently according to the book some of the president's own advisers have serious doubts about the president's afghanistan strategy. they say, for example, richard holbrooke his special representative for afghanistan/pakistan was quoted as saying. it can't work. there was push back on the president and the president basically sent the 30,000 troops to afghanistan because he was trying to pursue a strategy that the president really ultimately i

in his part of afghanistan, in helmand. militarily, i have to believe that that is taking place throughout the other provinces, where other servers brothers and sisters are. so i am confident that we are headed in the right direction with this thing. i cannot tell you how long the forces will be needed to be on the ground. i know there are pockets of the helmand province that are optimistic we improving every day. there is marked improvement in places like nawa, that just a year ago were absolutely taliban territory, and now the district governor is setting up schools and bazaars are open. i walked down those markets with out any helmet or flak jacket. i am optimistic about our military forces of all our services that they will be able to do their mission. i just cannot tell you how long we will need to be on the ground and what size force. >> a final topic. the traditional role of the marine corps is to conduct amphibious operations, to go across the beach into areas denied us. over the last 10 years now, the marine corps

and there's more perspective from afghanistan later here on our t.v. outspoken war critic matthew hoses hunting down the taliban is a waste of u.s. military and financial resources you can catch the full interview with him in the next hour here's a sneak peek. one of the larger problems i think with us foreign policy particular national security policies are not consistent if they're if we are in afghanistan because of al qaeda and if there are only fifty to one hundred members of al qaeda in afghanistan then why are we pulling out of iraq where there are one thousand to two thousand members why do we see and we need to keep. one hundred thousand troops in afghanistan when al qaida is operations come out of somalia and yemen so that consistency is not there in our in our foreign policy particularly in our now security policy and that's very worrisome to me because you don't have consistency if you don't have good critical thought if you don't have a degree of intellectual honesty in your policymaking you are going to have bad policy and you're going to

nato as war effort in afghanistan is facing another obstacle pakistan has closed an important supply route for the coalition one hundred fuel tankers and trucks haven't been allowed into afghanistan it's seen as a retaliation to a nato helicopter raid into the territory of pakistan in which three local soldiers were killed and three more wounded the alliance says the incident is now being investigated and promised to pakistan and promised pakistan sovereignty would be respected recently the number of missile strikes and helicopter raids against suspected militants hiding in pakistan's tribal zone has been on the rise pakistani officials say the attacks are violating international law and should be stopped pakistani political expert ahmed karate tells r t that the u.s. led coalition has failed to persuade pashtun tribes living on either side of the border to join in the peace efforts. you need to expect that box and could go actually more further ahead and completely shut down needed supplies because there is a strong feeling that box done is getting to the bad side of the stick we do

in his part of afghanistan, in helmand. militarily, i have to believe that that is taking place throughout the other provinces, where other servers brothers and sisters are. so i am confident that we are headed in the right direction with this thing. i cannot tell you how long the forces will be needed to be on the ground. i know there are pockets of the helmand province that are optimistic we improving every day. there is marked improvement in places like nawa, that just a year ago were absolutely taliban territory, and now the district governor is setting up schools and bazaars are open. i walked down those markets with out any helmet or flak jacket. i am optimistic about our military forces of all our services that they will be able to do their mission. i just cannot tell you how long we will need to be on the ground and what size force. >> a final topic. the traditional role of the marine corps is to conduct amphibious operations, to go across the beach into areas denied us. over the last 10 years now, the marine corps

pledging to pull its troops out of afghanistan by next summer many fear the elections show the country is far from stable and still plagued by corruption. is in the afghan capital for us. by and large this was certainly not a successful day for afghan democracy there was an extremely ill voter turnout with some polling stations reporting that less than a quarter the number of people turned out today compared to the number of people casting their ballot last year during the presidential elections the first results will come in next week wednesday with the final tape telling been tabled at the end of october but these certainly will be elections associated with violence more than a thousand polling stations where i'm able to open the doors particularly in far flung rule communities where the taliban has strong control we've also heard some of the electoral complaints commission and it says that while the course of the day it received numerous reports on irregularities some of the complaints were by people saying that they saw election officials accepting bribes some of the reports were a

pledging to pull its troops out of afghanistan by next summer many fear the elections show the country is far from stable and still plagued by corruption our policy here is in the afghan capital for us. by and large this was certainly not a successful day for afghan democracy it was an extremely ill voter turnout with some polling stations reporting that less than a quarter the number of people turned out today compared to the number of people casting their ballot last year during the presidential election is the first results will come in next week wednesday with the final tape tally been tabled at the end of october but these certainly will be elections associated with violence more than a thousand polling stations where i'm able to open the doors particularly in far flung rule communities where the taliban has strong control we've also heard some of the electoral complaints commission and it says it throughout the course of the day it received numerous reports on irregularities some of the complaints were by people saying that they saw election officials accepting bribes some of the

-- in iraq, in afghanistan. we are already seeing protests against americans just by but -- by the mere threat. >> at the mosque in virginia, we found plenty of concern. >> i don't want anybody to burn the koran. at the same time, there is recourse. we have freedom of speech. >> we are not here to harm people. we are trying to live a peaceful life, you know? it is following the way. >> everyone we spoke to condemn the the plans. >> i think that is stupid. absolutely. >> why? >> it is wrong. it is wrong. you should not be able to do that. >> there is no law here against the burning of the koran or even bibles. the constitution itself protects all acts of expression, however hateful they may be. if the pastor want to go ahead, no one has the legal power to stop him. bbc news, washington. >> this is due to happen in gainesville, florida. our correspondent is there now. the pastor seems to think in order to take a stand against militant islam, it is a good idea to offend all muslims. how was this likely to play out?

pledging to pull out troops out of afghanistan by next summer many fear the elections show the country is far from stable and still plagued by corruption archies paul the slayer is in kabul. by and large this was certainly not a successful day for afghan democracy it was an extremely ill voter turnout with some polling stations reporting that less than a quarter of the number of people turned out today compared to the number of people casting their ballot last year during the presidential elections the first results will come in next week wednesday with the final tape tally been tabled at the end of october but these certainly will be elections associated with violence more than a thousand polling stations where i'm able to open the doors are particularly in far flung rule communities where the taliban has strong control we've also heard the electoral complaints commission and it says it was the course of the day it received numerous reports on irregularities some of the complaints were by people saying that they saw election officials accepting bribes some of the reports were about th

troops pledging to pull out of afghanistan by next summer many fear of the election show the country is far from stable and still plagued by corruption argues paul the slayer is in the afghan capital. by and large this was certainly not a successful day for afghan democracy there was an extremely ill voter turnout with some polling stations reporting that less than a quarter the number of people turned out today compared to the number of people casting their ballot last year during the presidential elections the first results will come in next week wednesday with the final tape tally been tabled at the end of october but these certainly will be elections associated with violence more than eleven people were killed throughout the course of the day more than a thousand polling stations where i'm able to open the doors particularly in far flung rural communities where the taliban has strong control we've also heard some of the electoral complaints commission and it says that what the course of the day it was seemed to numerous reports on irregularities some of the complaints were by peo

particularly in places like afghanistan. the second in command in afghanistan was asked this week, when the december re-evaluation comes up, will you be able to mark significant progress? he said progress. but flinched from the word significant. secretary gates said we won't be fighting here in 15 years. not 15 months. that's not good enough. >> thank you all so much. and the "roundtable" continues in the green room. at abcnews.com/thisweek. you can find our fact checks and the reporter's notebook stories from around the world. from our abc kor spoents. >>> up now, how the controversy over the proposed mosque is playing 10,000 miles away. >>> coming up here, "in memoriam" and "the sunday funnies." >>> now, "in memoriam". >> he must go faster. some way, somehow, he must get the clock back in his favor and has seven miles to do it. ♪ >> we remember all of those who died in war this week. the pentagon released the names of 26 service members killed in afghanistan. we'll be right back. but what if there were a different story?

troops pledging to pull out of afghanistan by next summer many fear of the election showed the country is far from stable and still play by corruption party's polis lear is in the afghan capital. by and large this was certainly not a successful day for afghan democracy it was an extremely ill voter turnout with some polling stations reporting that less than a quarter the number of people turned out today compared to the number of people casting their ballot last year during the presidential elections the slowest to insults will come in next week wednesday with the final tape tally been tabled at the end of october but these certainly will be elections associated with violence more than a thousand polling stations where i'm able to open the doors particularly in far flung rule communities where the taliban has a strong control we've also heard some of the electoral complaints commission and it says it throughout the course of the day it received numerous reports on irregularities some of the complaints were by people saying that they saw election officials accepting bribes some of the r

and i remember i told him i learned already it's not going to afghanistan the u.s. will try to dominate the whole region let's go back into history for a moment because you fought with proud of having fought with them what you had seen in afghanistan against the safe union how much do you know about links between the mujahideen and the cia at the time from the muslim perspective the war it's not against russia which is the exist country now it was against communism even the soviet union muslims they've been provoked because of communism you know it's problematic issue even in the. muslim countries in the west because you know communism used to be labeled like religion until you muslim christian or jew so it's very important like the ideological motivation how muslims they've been. like to go on fire there but i know it was within the context of the cold war between the soviets. union and the u.s. so the mujahideen and when they fought there if you take it from the ever going in perspective you know it's just a country being invaded and as i told you from a muslim pe

host: general smith from kabul, afghanistan, about the future of afghanistan. thank you for being on the program. in a few minutes, we will be talking to barbara kiviat, the author of that this recent "time" magazine article. >> 9:13 a.m. eastern eastern time. afghans are voicing anchor about the plans of a georgia church to burn copies of the qaran. hundreds gathered to chant, "death to america." the israel foreign minister said they are hoping to and settlements. they have promised that the slowdown would end in a few weeks. palestinians say they will quit the talks if settlement construction continues. united nations say they need it additions to get food, water, medicine to pakistan is had by the flood. they need at least double the four murdered $6 million they asked for last month that the start of the -- double the four murdered $60 million. tropical storm hermine is moving through the gulf of mexico and is expected to bring rain to northern mexico and south texas. >> congress returns from break next week. here's a look at some of the prime-time programm

and i remember i told him i learned already it's not going to afghanistan the u.s. will try to dominate the whole region let's go back into history for a moment because you fought with and are proud of having fought with them what you had seen in afghanistan against the safe union how much do you know about links between them which had seen at the cia at the time from the muslim perspective the war against russia which the exist country now it was against communism even the soviet union muslims they've been provoked because of communism you know it's problematic issue even in the. muslim countries and the worst because you know communism used to be labeled like vision and you know muslim christian or jewish so it's very important like the ideological motivation how muslims they've been participate will be like to go on fire there but i know it was within the context of the cold war between the son. union and the u.s. so the mujahideen and when they fought there if you take it from the other kind perspective you know it's just a country being invaded and as i told yo

so taliban is a cancer in afghanistan? >> reporter: despite the threats, jalali remains hopeful, campaigning until the end in the belief that the time for a new afghanistan is now. mandy clark, cbs news, kabul. >> couric: the taliban are also stepping up attacks on u.s. troops. coming up next, powerful images from an insurgent ambush. one soldier owes his life to his helmet. and later, tall tales from the new guinness book of world records. plavix, taken with other heart medicines, goes beyond what other heart medicine÷s do alone, to provide greater protection against heart attack or stroke and even death by helping to keep blood platelets from sticking together and forming dangerous clots. ask your doctor if plavix is right for you. protection that helps [ female announcer ] certain genetic factors and some medicines, such as prilosec, reduce the effect of plavix leaving you at greater risk for heart attack and stroke. your doctor may use genetic tests to determine treatment. don't stop taking plavix without talking to y

this is in a remote area of north afghanistan. the first day of school there was registration day and the kids came to register for school and noticed as i walked i looked down at their chinese rubber boots and flip flops and i kept looking at the ground seeing those little impressions of their prints and i thought back to 1969 when neil armstrong stepped on the moon and said one small step for man and one giant leap for mankind. one tiefu tiny little print for girl walking in the dirt but years later, dozens of other girls will be behind her and eventually hundreds and it will be one giant leap for they're community. it really was the peaks that first brought me there but the people that bring me back again. when i got to corefa in the spring. kanle was very sad. his wife passed away. first we embrace each other and there's dust flying around and tiers in our ayes and then we go over to the local graveyard. as we walked to the graveyard we saw her buried in the box in the ground facing the sunset. and out of sentiment he said wit

forces plus up in afghanistan these to replicate the surge in iraq under the previous administration and in effect the u.s. secretary of defense robert gates is the only hand over from the previous administration to replicate the same type of search which was exit q did on the general betray us in iraq and to make a remake of this strategy in afghanistan while the u.s. commanders and politicians talk a lot about to what extent the u.s. military experience in iraq could be transferable to afghanistan the negative furious experience in iraq has been largely ignored it seems like some gys developed a horrible habit during that tour of duty in iraq that is shooting civilians for fun and when they go to transfer to afghanistan one of those loose cannons set up a kill team in stryker brigade in kandahar who right now are under investigation for killing afghan civilians just for sports as a result it has delivered and irreparable damage to the u.s. image abroad and specifically created yet another tool for taliban recruiting against the foreign occupation in afghanistan. democracy and islam

and i remember i thought i told him and already it's not going to afghanistan the u.s. will try to dominate the whole region but let's go back into history for a moment because you fought with and are proud of having fought with them what you had seen in afghanistan against the soviet union how much do you know about links between the mujahideen and the cia at the time from the muslim perspective the war it's not against russia which the exist country now it was against communism even the soviet union muslims they've been provoked because of communism you know it's problematic issue even in the. muslim countries in the worst because you know communism used to be labeled like the anti religion and god muslim christian or jew so it's very important like the ideological motivation how muslims they've been participate or being encouraged to go on fire there but i know it was within the context of the cold war between the son. the union and the u.s. so the mujahideen and when they fought there if you take it from the of going perspective you know it's just a country being in

afghanistan is a complex place. e we'rnot going to, quote, win even if we stay 10 years and spend a trillion dollars. but complexities are not easily explained on the campaign trail for the president in office. so it is a problem for a politician. if you believe in complexities, they're hard to explain. chris: the problem with the complexity here is it's somewhere in the middle and asking young men and women to die for a cause that's not worth staying the next year and a half for. we're going to leave so soon. >> that's why the book, i think, is damaging. it reveals a very divided process, not just by policy disagreement but by personal contempt among members and she's highly politicized process, political people involved in this process, which i think is a bad thing. and an ambivalent commander in chief and in afghanistan we have a patient, determined enemy and doesn't look like we a patient, determined president. >> it doesn't show the president was ambivalent but the opposite, the president welcomed a vigorous de

reports of thousands of cia trained in afghanistan since operating in pakistan raised concerns over what's to happen after the u.s. pulls out of the region and who will control the elite force will be leaving behind . a war of words between the american a rainy and president. tells the u.n. general assembly that most people in the world believe the united states was behind the nine eleven attacks comments from that coming up live this hour. carlos is our team from moscow is what i am here now i'm kevin zero in with the top stories for the first time ever a soyuz spacecraft has failed to undock from the international space station leaving the crew temporarily stuck in orbit two russian cosmonauts and a nasa astronaut were ready to return to worth when signal technical problems and telling of a cause got the latest for. a difficult maneuver and not a good time to hear warning bells after spending nearly six months in orbit three of the current guy says crew get held up trying to head for home well trying to undo the automatic lock between the space station and sees landing munjal feel to ope

the same thing in afghanistan. >> chris: chris? >> look, i think from a political stand point, the paragraphs about the economy in that speech felt unintend -- that was an unintended consequence of low polls. and i think for everything this administration is doing was predicated on the belief that you would have 3-4% reliable economic growth by this point and the president could be talking about other things. because he does like to talk about other things. he likes to take glancing blows off different issues and do a week on foreign policy and do a week on this or a week on that. they're finding they have to remake their whole agenda late in the game. the president is calling an audible on the economy and says okay, everything is about the economy. we're going to talk about the war in iraq and afghanistan. well, that's about the economy, too. not everything is about the economy. but i think it's a reference and a clear point that they are very, very concerned. >> chris: steve, then there are the continuing mixed m

ivan watson in kabul, afghanistan. fred plankton in islamabad, pakistan kninic robertson and i tell us what you know about this first. >> reporter: well, an air strike that took place on saturday according to u.s. and nato spokesmen. usually we're hearing about raids that tart taliban commanders, taliban operatives. this time identifying two arab al qaeda operatives. one by the name of abdullah omar karashi a saudi bringing foreign fighters into afghanistan, ard coulding to a spokesman and abu atta al kuwaiti, a kuwaiti explosives expert. this took place in kunar province near the border with pakistan, in a bloody corner called the corner valley, an area u.s. forces recently evacuated after spending five years fighting there and losing at least 40 american lives. and sad piece of news. a nato isap soldiers killed by a roadside bomb in southern afghanistan today. a bloody year in afghanistan. ali? >> stay with us. going to fred, an interest in drone attacks inside pakistan. tell us the significance of this. why is that

artie's paul asli reporting from afghanistan's capital kabul more thoughts on this story spoke to us is from the think tank project from pakistan in the twenty first century he says the death squads may become a major source of problems for both afghanistan and pakistan. but the united states continues to rely on warlords in afghanistan when when i heard about the this mercenary force of three thousand well trained up guns i still there's one part of the story that is still missing and that is where these three thousand of gun volunteers for this mercenary army came from and i have no doubt about the answer to this question and that is they came and they were recommended by some of the warlords of course as you know there is a there's a problem of loyalty and enough to understand you cannot recruit people without knowing exactly where they coming from so most of this three thousand force must have come recommended from some of the warlords and these warlords are really milking the u.s. government and the u.s. military they're making a lot of money and of course we all know the story

have iraq and afghanistan really changed the role of snipers in the u.s. military? >> well, i think in talking to the snipers, i talk to about 30 snipers in the conventional army and special operations community, as well as the marine corps, and as best i can tell there's still the capability for the long shot from one ridge to another, and an afghanistan setting. but what has emerged in this war is a capability and urban set that amounts to something called a sniper assaulter, which is where a sniper would place himself on a rooftop or on a number of rooftops, a team maybe, couple teams, and provide covering fire, multiple ranges, for an assault package on the ground. >> which has proven critical in counter-insurgency and urban operations. >> absolutely. and it keeps the ground force safer, to have those guys up there. because you can put infantry men up there too, but these guys are pre-programmed and trained to come up with different mathematical formulas to engage at different ranges quickly. >> is -- the job has changed and they're being used -- obviously the p

, what shouldn't be done in afghanistan, and what can be done in afghanistan. a lot of the book is about politics. for example, president obama is quoted as saying "i'm not doing 10 years. i'm not doing long-termination building. i'm not spending $1 trillion." i have two years with the public on this. i want an exit strategy. i can't lose the whole democratic party. of course, today is wednesday. that means when's with juan. the npr analyst juan williamss us. >>guest: think to johnson and vietnam, and you could see the members of the administration going at each other, and eisenhower, people are at each other's throats getting rid of generals and the like. here we have a situation that is interesting with the military versus military. we have chairman of the joint chiefs, for example, mullen, saying his deputy is going behind his back to get to the white house. that is very interesting, you thinking those guys are not open the same page. or you think about the idea you have a special envoy holbrooke arguing that the plan the president is putting out is in the w

citracal. >> couric: in the war in afghanistan, the u.s. military has focused much of its attention on pushing the taliban out of kandahar in the south. but some of the toughest battles are being fought in the northeast in kunar province. its mountains and problem similar toy pakistan make it a haven for insurgents. tonight we're getting our first look at some dramatic footage of american soldiers being ambushed in kunar from our partner global post. in late august, infantry soldiers from the 101st airborne lead their combat outpost to scout out possible polling sites for the parliamentary elections. their convoy is hit by a coordinated attack-- on the ground and from the cliffs above. 19-year-old private justin greer cranks his turret toward the incoming fire and is shoot in his helmet. >> bleep in the head! bell blm (bleep). >> your helmet saved you, man. hang on! >> couric: greer suffered a mild concussion but is otherwise okay. at the head of the convoy, the lead vehicle has been hit is now in flames. several soldiers attend to the driv

the book hits store shelves next week. >>> a navy soldier killed in afghanistan. he lived in silver spring and graduated in 1999. at dematha. he was a standout athlete and his former coach says he lived up to the school's motto, a gentleman and a scholar. >> more so than a hero, a great human being. you know, everything that it would want your son to be. in 2004 he became an officer and later a navy seal. he was among the nine killed in a helicopter crash in afghanistan this week. >>> after five days of gains, wall street slows down. >>> independent audit finds millions of dollars in unused transportation funds. we'll be right back. ♪ [ female announcer ] have you ever seen a glacier while sunbathing? why not? have you ever climbed a rock wall in the middle of the ocean? or tried something really wild? why not? it's all possible in the nation of why not. royal caribbean's floating nation where you're free to do anything you want. which may be nothing at all. royal caribbean international. visit royalcaribbean.com today. >>> it's time for the first "living $mart"

to sustain our global supremacy nowhere in afghanistan before because of nine eleven. nine eleven involved a horrendous crime against the american public and its cold for measures designed to make certain that that doesn't occur again. american role on the huge continent of your radio it's much more benign it involves alliances with some key countries it involves improvement in relations with some previous antagonists so it should not be confused with the operation in afghanistan which has a very specific historical motive and a very specific objective now i want to ask in an interview with a french magazine in one thousand nine hundred eight you called the covert funding of the mujahedeen prior to the former soviet union invasion an excellent idea according to their analysis of what you said the dismantling of the soviet union was to a degree more important than quote some start at muslims and that you don't regret it do you stand by that statement now yes although that version of so-called interview was not really an interview the interviewer was an extensive intervi

response from the us and i remember i thought i told him and already it's not going to afghanistan the u.s. will try to dominate the whole region let's go back into your history for a moment because you fought with and are proud of having fought with them what you had seen in afghanistan against the soviet union how much do you know about links between the mujahideen and the cia at the time from the muslim perspective the war it's not against russia which is the exist country now it was against communism even the soviet union muslims they've been provoked because of communism you know it's problematic issue even in the. muslim countries in the west because you know communism used to be labeled like the anti religion and god you know muslim christian or jewish so it's very important like the ideological motivation how muslims. participate in perth to go on for there but i know it was within the context of the cold war between the son. union and the u.s. so the mujahideen and when they fought there if you take it from the of going in perspective you know it's just a continuing invaded an