here in helmand it goes up to 30%.cussions we had yesterday, you know, people don't know is the united states staying? is the united states going? you know, they're hedging bets. they literally have 30 years of war. they're not convinced the united states is going to stay, no matter how many times we say it. >> and that's what the u.s. is really trying to convince people here of. maybe not that the u.s. is here to stay, but there is going to be security here whether it's u.s. forces here or later afghan forces once they're fully trained. >> absolutely. they're building up an army. it takes a long time. one of the complaints when the united states went into helmand is how few afghan forces were part of that, just several hundred. that is beginning to change. still the afghan national army is not remotely at the point where it could really take charge of this security of this country. >> you don't hear u.s. troops here saying we're winning. >> well, we don't -- you hear -- locally you'll hear marines say well we have see

here in helmand. what's the significance here in helmand province? to a senior marine officer we spoke to, anderson, helmand, 12 districts in helmand were controlled by the taliban in july. now only one according to the marines. controlled by the taliban. so a lot of what the military calls kinetic activity, moving taliban out of areas that were controlled. the area we're in, at least on our walkaround yesterday, seemed like the taliban had been rolled back although they remain a presence. have they gone underground? did they move out of the area? the marine incursion here was highly advertise sod they had time to kind of -- >> so it's possible they just faded away into other areas or the ones who live here are laying low to see what happens in the future? >> no doubt. in fact, we've had fairly serious attacks in the north of afghanistan by taliban in the last few weeks. the taliban, they were thinking organization as well. >> admiral mike mullen says the war is deteriorating and we're seeing taliban move from traditional strongholds into the north a

there are about 10,000 in helmand. allowed the ma reendz to work in all the areas of helmand did has allowed them to move into areas that have been under taliban control for years, like this area. it's a strategy to try to protect the local population and serve them the benefits of life without the taliban. it's a strategy the marines say in this area is showing success. patrol base is a remote, dusty outpost in the helmand river valley. this was taliban territory up until just two months ago. when the first battalion, fifth regiment of the second expeditionary brigade first arrived. how bad was it when you first got it? >> pretty bad. every day. i was captain heisman's company and my headquarters, when we landed we got shot at as we moved in and for the next ten days every patrol that went out was was destroying the enemy. >> reporter: lieutenant bill and his marines can now openly walk the streets in this district. and they're moving quickly to help rebuild. there's a few road being organized with u.s. funds. dozens

the situation is serious, no more so than in helmand. there are young people who have suffered at the hands of taliban and they are in hospital. when i meet the families of those people who have been bereaved, i have to keep asking myself, are we taking the right decisions for them and for the conduct of the action in afghanistan? are we doing what is right both by our forces and by the population of this country, and every time i asked myself, as i do with these questions, my answer is yes. we are taking the right action, the action that is necessary to safeguard both our country and promote security in the world. it is at times like this that we must strengthen, not weaken our resolve. we must stand up to those who would threaten our way of life. we must take heart from progress that has been made since 2001. we must take actions to deal with the changing and new tactics of the taliban. i know we are asking a great deal of our armed forces. i can assure them that the government will continue to give them every support. just as importan

it's a small forward outpest in helmand province.home for the last two points or so, it will be some time to come before they get home. we want to show you behind the scenes, we've been showing you a lot the last couple of days about what it's like out on patrol, outside the wire. we want to show you what it's like in this camp living here under difficult conditions. take a look. patrol base jaker may not be much to look at. for the marines of the 1st battalion 5th regiment it's become a home. you may have heard stories of troops living on bases with all the comforts of home. movie theaters, convenience stores, fast food restaurants. patrol base jaker is nothing like that. there are about 50 marines here at any given time. and the conditions they face are extremely difficult. temperatures here can reach 120 degrees. but there's no air conditioning in tents. no respite from the heat and dust. first thing you notice when you get into camp jaker is this dust. the marines call it moon dust. it's a fine powder that coats everything and ge

we're at geronimo in helmand province deep in taliban territory. we'll show what you happened when we went on patrol. first, we have breaking news on health care reform back home. president obama pressing moderate democrats for their support. dana bash catching up with them, getting their late reaction. dan na, what are you hearing? >> reporter: earlier this evening i talked with several senators who did meet with the president today. it was a group of 17 senators. they were all democrats and all conservative democrats. and that's quite telling that this was the first group the president wanted to meet with after his big speech. he knows that his health care plan really depends on what they can accept. and most of these senators are quite uncomfortable in some cases outright opposed to what the president prefers. which is a government-run health care option. one of these senators, tom carper of delaware, told me he really pressed the president behind closed doors to bend on that. and specifically, to hold off on that so-called public option. for se

we're at forward operating base geronimo in helmand province. marines are helping retrain the afghan national army. we got involved in afghanistan because of what happened on september 11th. we're a few hours away from the anniversary in the united states. already here in afghanistan it is 9/11. we wanted to take a look at where is al qaeda today. you hear politicians talking about what is happening here as a hunt for al qaeda. but you don't hear a lot of folks on the ground here talking about al qaeda. we're going it talk about that with peter bergen and michael ware. michael, in washington, you hear this war being presented as a war against al qaeda, as a hunt for al qaeda. here on the ground, you don't hear bch al qaeda. >> well, that's because this is not a hunt against al qaeda. you don't hear the afghans in the combat zones in southern afghanistan or eastern afghanistan talking about al qaeda. that's why america originally invaded afghanistan way back in 2001. because al qaeda was given sanctuary by the taliban. america recognized that as

nine chinooks, equivalent on one mission to the entire british chinook fleet in helmand.he american surge mais made this possible. >> the americans do have a lot of aviation, more aviation than the british and enabled us to get into one chinook. >> we're using the american aviation and in effect using the british infantry. >> reporter: in the deadliest war zone for both armies, joint operations and mutual respect. >> i get excited when we fly to british, because i know something good's going to happen. >> reporter: bad things happen, too. casualties. the americans have also brought dozens of helicopters for that at one base, there were three blackhawk medical helicopters before the u.s. surge. now there are 15. on board here, two afghan soldiers shot by the taliban, one is dying. american medics treat them and get them to a field hospital 30 minutes after being called. another emergency, three dutch soldiers have been injured by a roadside bomb. in four months at one base, the americans have evacuated 1,500 wounded. their own british, afghan, dutch, and canadian. a dozen

we went out to visit a marine unit in the helmand province. and they are living with, eating with, fighting with with their afghan buddies. and so this is a much different strategy. they are staying in the towns and villages instead of going out looking for taliban and then going back to a base. that strategy change, which is to look at this as an insurgency rather than just as terrorists was a major shift in iraq, it's a change in afghanistan, and it's what worked in iraq as well. we got a couple things going for us in afghanistan which are going to really count down the road. one is that the afghan people hate the taliban. the taliban has only a 5% support level inside of afghanistan. and secondly, the most trusted institution in iraq is their army and that army is a fighting army. these are most separated fighters and if we can dramatically increase the size of that army, we will be putting in place something which we think would work. >> rose: you said iraq, i know you meant afghanistan. >> i meant afghanistan. i'm sorry. >> rose: and this

task force helmand there and as you know there's been a number of operations there pretty highly reported on and there's been tactical gains there, and also some of them operating in that district of herat province. and next element, the striker combat team, the effective forces over in iraq as you will recall, in fact, it's so effective that we sought to keep two of them there at all times and generally we were successful in doing that and that element has gone into khandahar and areas around it and working very closely in that case with test force khandahar from canada, and then this is going to be very interesting to watch right here. this is a significant endeavor but putting in a brigade of -- it's going to be an advise and assist brigade, similar to the concept that we've developed for iraq and just starting to implement there. but it's a fourth brigade of the division, augustmente augmenteds to enable them to do this advise and assist mission and overleahy generally probably in about platoon-sized elements on the army and police elements in regional command south. that will substan

. >> tonight anderson cooper is at a forward patrol base in the helmand province.i spoke with him just a short time ago. michael, you're in kabul, not far away from where those four american troops were killed today. there's obviously been an increase in the number of soldiers on the ground. but overall, what is your take? is the strategy work ing. >>> >> reporter: in a simple answer, no, it's not, the mission is in crisis. president obama is holding a basket case of a war in his hands. and this is going to be a defining moment that the foreign policy initiatives in his administration. does he decide to fight this war or not? i've been talking to the top commanders here on the ground. they simply don't have the troops to put military pressure on the taliban as is required. i have seen in the south, i have just come from there, i spent a week in southern afghanistan in the heart of the combat zone in the southern capital of kandahar, and i can tell you now that the taliban war machine is not under threat, it's barely under pressure. and in helmand, the american mili

it's a village counc in this llage in helmand roe perot vince. we just hpened to bethere dung the meeti of the old timers sittg on the floorand we joined them andwe said "so you want usere? how long do you want us here?" an the answer that they gave us was basically " want you to make our army self-suicient. and then we wt you to leave. and we wantou toome back as guts, but we want you just to stay here longnough to mak our army self-suffient." that their words, and i think that's theight goal. >> re: looking at our nato allies, if they arenot ppared to support the unite states in s efforts-- and we know whe e questions that are going on right noin gmany do do it damage to the nato alliance? >> i thin it does whenever they do cay out the commitments that they've made. it's been very spotty. some oour natollies have been terrific. the canadians, the brits, the germans. they'rreally the fighting and they've taken some very heavy losses, particully the canadians proportionately. some of our nat allies hpó not come tough, even wh their own financial

class bradley bohle was one of three soldiers inside a vehicle patrolling the helm and profits -- helmand province when their vehicle was struck. baltimore police are searching for the gunman who shot four people last night in baltimore. police say three men and one woman were being treated for non-life threatening injuries. witnesses say two men got out of a white car and opened fire. baltimore city police have stepped up patrols in the same neighborhood where police say john hopkins student killed an intruder with a samurai sword. it was 2:30 when a call from a neighbor prompted police to search the home. they found a back gate unlocked but nothing suspicious. when the student, 20-year-old john pontolillo, search the garage, that is when the suspect jumped at him and that is when he hit the suspect with the sword. >> we do not believe there is any criminal intent. we believe this to the feared for his life and was defending himself. >> least say it is up to the city attorney's office to see if pontolillo faces any charges. a man has been charged in a town pornography case. douglas patri

. >> reporter: anderson cooper, helmand province, afghanistan. >> and you can see a lot more of anderson's excellent reporting tonight on "a.c. 360" live from the battle zone, all this week, 10:00 p.m. eastern, i think you'll want to see it. >>> he just delivered a major speech, now president obama has just announced another one in a matter of days, stand by, we'll tell you what's going on. and one network skipped the president's speech last night and aired one of the first ladies favorite shows instead. you're going to hear what the president had to say about that. infrared to help protect. satellites to help guide. electricity to adjust how powerfully or efficiently you drive. someday we'll all drive like this. the first-ever hs hybrid. only from lexus. the first-ever hs hybrid. when we spend a billion dollars a day buying foreign oil... we don't just waste our money... we put our economy in the hands of hostile nations. we let big oil make record profits... while we struggle. and we lose new energy jobs, r9that go overseas. but we can take charge of our economy... by passing strong clea

in helmand province. anderson, what's happening there? the marines here in afghanistan. four marines were killed in the east in kunar province far from here. tonight we're going to take you on patrol with marines hunting for ieds here in helmand province. also michael ware takes us on patrol in canned dehaur, comes very close to losing his own life in an ied attack. he takes us to the front line. it's an amazing story. and dr. sanjay gupta is here. profiling a surgeon in the war zone. he becomes part of the operating team, lengthing a much-needed hand at a battle hospital. we'll show you all that live from afghanistan tonight. those stories and more on "360," larry. >> larry: 10:00 eastern, 7:00 pacific, anderson cooper always on the scene. we're back with nathan lee, the widower of denise amber lee. in the 911 call, your wife while she's captured fools her kidnapper into thinking she is talking to him when she is communicating with a 911 operator. she says, i want to see my family again and pleads with him to let her go. she tries to get

its harder to explaito the yog soldiersighting and dyin to ensure stabily in helmand. >> movg on, russia'foreign minist has refed to confirm or deny that israel's prime minister made a secret visit to scow on monday. e also refused to comment on reports th the visit might make -- link is really concerns -- israeli concerns to the mysterious case of the arctic sea. it was allegedly hijacked by pirates. nine women have been eed from a turkish viage where they spent two months cked up, beeving it were pa of a reality tv show. their relates raise the alarm when they were prevted from contacting them. cameras were producing live images for painnternet users. one suspect has be arrested. workhorses for haulg cargo to the internaonal space station. for next year, e stion will no longebe serviced by the american eet. as international attention focuses on the exnsion of jewish settlements in e west bank, much of the internal debateithin israel ccerns e makeup of its army --a right wing religious groups are growin in influce in what used to be a sular and today. have this report from jerusam. >> isra's ar

marines, i came out of helmand province a few weeks ago and i was at one point embedded with unit thatartially british, partially american, and those forces got along extremely well. the brits were fighting the fight. they were using less armored kit, as they say. their equipment was not quite as enviable as ours was, but they got the job done. when i asked them if they wanted more helicopters because there was a great controversy in great britain about resourcing these troops. they said, no, we don't need more helicopters, we don't need more armor. simply what we need to do is continue the fight that we're fighting. >> jim, who is the enemy? who do the troops say is the enemy? do they believe they're fighting the taliban, al qaeda? both? who is the enemy? >> the troops, u.s. troops will tell you that the enemy is a combination of all of the above. it's al qaeda and they are not of the opinion like some of the pundants that al qaeda is the only in pakistan and everyone else is in afghanistan. they're fighting a fight that has no borders. that line of 1893 does not exist for the pashtun

the challenges in helmand are many.having seen the map of helmand more times than i can count, it is almost impossible to visualize how isolated these places are. you know, there are a bunch of spots of security. spots of people with huge amounts of desert in the middl and what we're doing is putting civilians in both direct u.s. government, local nationals, and implementing partners. inhese areas as they are cleared to go through the difficulprocess of implementing programs with the afghan local people. th provincial minister that we met with in helmand was extremely grateful for the civilianresident, extra me complimentary of the speed and quality of t people. i must say my own observation, the quality of the people who are signing up f this difficult duty is extraordinarily high. the challenge we're going to have is replicating this over and over again. the standard we are setting as we hit the ground with civilian in these difficult aignments is really quite high. we observed ourselves the challenges of mobility. i

in helmand province they're responsible for some 80% of all casualties. they can either be buried in the road or detonated by a member of the taliban who's hiding in underbrush like this. that's why it's important for the marines to keep 10 or 15 meters in between each marine on patrol, instead in the event that an ied is detonated, the damage is limited. since they arrived in helmand province, a little more than two months ago, the first battalion, 5th regiment has lost one marine to ieds, 48 others have been under wounded. in july, lance corporal james buttery's vehicle was hit. you landed over there? >> the front of the truck was pretty much where the tree was. knocked the tree out, and i landed right there. i was able to crawl out. and one of the other marines here were able to jump in and grab the marine in the canal. bl we were all conscious. no serious injuries. >> reporter: you were lucky. >> yeah. >> reporter: they collect part of the ieds. >> the charge goes off and that's how you get your explosion. they make a lot of stuff out here that -- for

now, that just neighbors the area of helmand, the next-door province, or state, where this massive u.s. military offensive is under way. and i can tell you, what everyone in the region there is telling me, police commanders, local warlords, tribal leaders, even the afghan president's brother, is that the fighting by the americans might be killing taliban foot soldiers, but it's doing nothing to break the back of the taliban war machine. and we see that the taliban, in its pockets of resistance, has the capital of the south, kandahar, this city of almost 1 million people, virtually surrounded. and the taliban are able to strike almost at will. so, i can tell you, this mission is certainly in crisis. this nation is in a political limbo. they don't even know the outcome of last month's presidential election, because there's been so many allegations of corruption. >> so, michael -- >> reporter: and the entire u.s. war plan is currently under revision, kyra? >> so, bottom line, you know, basically i'm listening to you and it sounds pretty darn depressing. so, i guess as an american here in

lee, anderson cooper will host ac 360 at the top of the-hour, right now he's in a patrol base in helmande. anderson, what's happening there. >> larry, it was a tough day for the marines here in afghanistan, four marines were killed in the east in kunar province, far from here. tonight we're going to take you on patrol. and michael ware takes us on night patrol in comes close to life. he takes us to the front line. it's an amazing story. and dr. sanjay gupta is here. he is lending a much needed hand at a battlefield hospital. we'll show you all that live from afghanistan tonight. those stories and more on "306"" larry. >> larry: we're back with nathan lee, the widower of denise amberlee. in the 911 call, she fools her kidnapper into thinking she is talking to him when she is communicating with a 911 operator. she says want to see my family again and pleas with him to let her go. she tries to get him to provide her information about where they are. her final words are help me. why couldn't they trace this? what -- how did they explain this to you? >> well, you know, i'm not an expert in th

this happens toiraq in the same thing is going on right now and helmand province and ndahar were the young guys out there with one of the most difficult sense of terrain and climate and dangerous circumstances you can imagine i would not take anything from any one of these guys. this is a nighttime operation outside anbar province. the national police came in and said we have got an ied in the middle of th road. if you lk carefully beneath te lights will see the reflection of 1975 ford fair lane station wagon the police came in and told the marines, we think-- so the marine patrol goes out to me give up to the edge of it in we are 20 ears away. i have got bicameral rolling on it and youan hear mortars being fired from somewhe. this arjun says let's get o of here, let's toe this thing. i'm thinking tell it? a different kind of toe. [laughter] that is secondary from what was inside. this is a gunfight in downtown ramadi, iraq. that is the blue mosque. there's a photograph of me standing next to that mosque last december without a flak jacket or helmut. every time i was with the marine

marines, i came out of helmand province a few weeks ago and i was at one point embedded with unit that partially british, partially american, and those forces got along extremely well. the brits were fighting the fight. they were using less armored kit, as they say. their equipment was not quite a enviable as ours was, but they got the job done. when i asked them if they wanted more helicopters because there was a great controversy in great britain about resourcing these troops. they said, no, we don't need more helicopters, we don't need more armor. simply what we need to do is continue the fight that we're fighting. >> jim, who is the enemy? who do the troops say is the enemy? do they believe they're fighting the taliban, al qaeda? both? who is the enemy? >> the troops, u.s. troops will tell you that the enemy is a combination of all of the above. it's al qaeda and they are not of the opinion like some of the pun ditss that al qaeda is only in pack san and everyone else is in afghanistan. they're fighting a fight that has no borders. that line of 1893 does not exist for the pashtun t

war got mentioned tonight in that speech, and that's where anderson cooper is, the site of war, in helmand province in afghanistan. what's up tonight, anderson? >> we have breaking news out of afghanistan tonight. a "new york times" reporter freed in a daring helicopter assault by british forces. one soldier was killed. details on that. also, what u.s. marines here are at patrol base jaker are up against. we'll talk to marines on the front lines who are fighting this war. and a very difficult situation it is. dr. sanjay gupta is with the so-called dustoff crew, an elite medical crew called in. to save critically wounded civilians and servicemen. every second counts, most of the time they have only one hour to save lives. we'll show you their work. and we'll be covering the president's address to congress. did he convince americans that health care reform was needed? we'll have new poll numbers. those stories and a lot more live from afghanistan tonight, larry. >> larry: thanks, anderson. that's 10:00 eastern, 7:00 pacific. when we come back, some moments with congressman ron paul, republic

into conflict wi ourselve on aust 14, lance corporal joshua bernard w on patrol in afghanistan's helmand ovince. an associatepress photographer emdded in his unit. that's bernard tre, on patrol, shortly fore a taliban ambush. hit by a rocket-propeld grade, lance corpol bernard was mortally wounded. he died later in a hostal. the a. released the picture over the objections ofis family and defenseecretary robert gates, and itppeared in many newspapers d on websites. i can't even imagine how would feel if that were my son o grandson. i do understand e reaction. i would wanto remember him the lastime i saw him alive, not bleeding to death in aoreign ace. for so intimate a matt as death to bece a public event can only add to the pain and grief. but as a journalt, i know that e reason americans tolerate wars along as we do is that most of us look thother way while others do the ffering in our stead. our soldiersave been fighting in afghanistan longer thane fought in the firsand second world wars combined,ut just try to remember the tis you've actual have seen one of our fallen there yet,ugust

. >> reporter: patrol base baker remote dusty outpost in the helmand river valley, taliban territoryl two months ago when the fifth battalion of the second marine expeditionary brigade arrived in force. how bad was the fight when you got here? >> every day pretty much every day. captain heisman's company and my headquarter's element when we landed here. we got shot as as we flew in, and for the next ten days every patrol that went out was -- was destroying the enemy. >> reporter: lieutenant bill mccullough and his marines can openly walk the streets in this district, and they are moving quickly to help rebuild. there's a new road being organized with u.s. funds. dozens of businesses have already reopened, and soon the local school closed by the taliban will reopen as well. some people say this and say this seems an awful lot like nation-building, and is that something -- is that part of the mission? is nation-building part of the mission? >> well, if you call enabling governance nation-building, then, yes. >> reporter: so to really win in afghanistan, to win long term and to win for

when i was and helmand province i learned that we have thousands of marines.e 800 afghan troops which infuriated me, and we only had dozens of american civilians. perhaps there were more nato civilians. what should we be doing to surge the civilian side? do you believe we need to place more emphasis on a civilian serge? >> there's been -- there's been a great deal of emphasis placed by all of us but in particular secateurs clinton and ambassador holbrooke, deputy secretary lu etc, and so there is a great deal of focus on this. i -- as i look at the numbers it is a matter that the machine just can't turn them out very quickly. and i share your concern although i was with the same marines a month before and i was actually taken aback by the civilians who rolled into the villages literally right behind -- the next day. so it's very spotty. some places we can do it and some places we can't but we have to have that and what in said happening is if the civilians aren't there we do it and those are the same village as i am guessing the marines are doing that until th

the 29-year-old sergeant first class was one of three soldiers inside a vehicle patroling the helmand device struck it on tuesday. he died wednesday from his injuries. he is an 11-year veteran and leaves behind a wife and three children. >>> let's check on the morning commute with traffic pulse 11 and sarah caldwell. >> not a bad commute out there, has not been bad all morning. route 32, watch for closures at i-70 due to a crash coming in the last few minutes. rosedale, that one is clear, but magothy bridge, anne arundel county, watch for accident location there. 14 minutes on the west side outer loop. here is a life of your traffic at wilkins ave. here you are in great shape. to lay-free on the top part. easing up on the west side outer loop at liberty. >> you can see the gray skies out there, light fog that is still out there. we will see a slow improvement today. turning partly cloudy, warmer. right now we're still in the 60's. 64 downtown. into the 70's, 76 to 79. tomorrow will be lovely. mostly sunny, 75 degrees, ice tonight and tomorrow night. >> thank you for joining us. we wil

military offensive in helmand province they say, is killing taliban fighters, but the taliban keepingevolving. and finding new ways to wage war. all of which leaves the view from kandahar one of the taliban war machine that shows no signs of slowing. a taliban war machine that's ever growing. while the situation on the ground continues to deteriorate, the country is in a national political limbo. they don't even know who their president is because of corruption allegations plaguing the presidential election results. and militarily, the american war plan is also in limbo. the generals have to go back to d.c., they need more troops. they need to look at how they're fight thing war, and they need to rethink it. so all of this while the taliban is growing stronger. it's know all eyes on the white house. is president obama ready to step up to fight this war, anderson? >> yeah, a classified strategy assessment has been given by general mccrystal to president obama for him to look at. very likely in the coming months, or maybe even weeks, there may be an increase for u.s. forces here in the

bohle died in helmand province. he had a wife and three daughters. army staff agent joshua m.m el paso, texas. mills leaves behind a wife and a son. sergeant 1st class shawn p. mccloskey was on his third tour in afghanistan when he was killed. the 33-year-old leaves behind a wife, a daughter, and a son. these are just three of the 834 american men and women who have given their lives in the war in afghanistan. ♪ yet you'd step out there not even thinking about yourself because that's how you were ♪ this life was protected... ♪ seems you've always been right there ♪ this life was saved... ♪ soothing sadness ♪ healing pain and this life was made easier... ♪ making smiles appear again because of this life. nursing. at johnson & johnson, we salute all those who choose the life... that makes a difference. ♪ you're a nurse ♪ you make a difference it would frustrate me. my bayer meter is very important. (announcer) only bayer's contour meter has programmable personal high low settings. it allows me to make sure that my diabetes is controlled as tightly as possible. (announcer) the co

. >> reporter: other worrisome taliban tactics, in flat areas, like the southern helmand valley, detonationle, so the attacker can remain out of sight. and the taliban knows that the convoys regularly stop. and now the taliban is placing bombing where the convoys stop. >> what do you think, more troops on the ground. >> well, that's the big question right now, kyra. general mcchrystal, the commander over there is working on a proposal, no one knows exactly what it's going to say, but today, senator carl levin spoke on capitol hill and he recently met with mcchrystal and he thinks mcchrystal's body language is to ask for more troops. that's going to be bothersome because a lot of democrats are lining up voicing a lot of skepticism about escalating the war one more time, about sending large numbers of combat forces and yet defense secretary robert gates says, you know, time is running out in a certain fashion here, that there's only 12 to 18 months to really try and turn this around. have a listen, just for a minute, to some of what senator levin had to say. >> he did not share with us, nor d

here now is sanjay from helmand province. >> reporter: one hour, that's it. minutes began ticking down when word came that two men, both civilians, about 40 miles from here, were critically wounded. without help, they could bleed out and die. >> if they're an urgent patient, we have time lines where we need to be moving extremely fast. i mean, within minutes. we don't mess around. when that bell rings, we run and we get out here, we get all geared up and we take off. >> reporter: right now we're in a medevac blackhawk helicopter traveling at least 1,200 feet off the ground. we know there are two patients who have been stabbed. that's all we know. we don't know how bad off they are. it's what these guys do. i'm with an elite medical dustoff crew. the name goes back to vietnam. it was the radio emergency call signal to chopper in the combat flight medics. they are a go team, 24/7, they steal moments of time to save lives. >> our job is to get people up and out of here in those seconds. because seconds count. >> reporter: for nate dadny and his team, most missio

. >> reporter: anderson cooper, cnn, helmand province, afghanistan. >>> dr. sanjay gupta is also in afghanistan. he's been following the progress of a 4-year-old boy who tried to get away from the fighting and ended up with severe head injuries. >> sanjay, anderson and michael were sent back to put together some remarkable stories from the battle zone. here at home, there are more than two million job openings, it sounds like a lot, but is it? we're going to dig deeper and find out who's hiring. with unbeatable prices on tresemmé tres two hairspray beauty costs less at walmart. save money. live better. walmart. some lunch. you hungry? yeah. me too. (door crashes in) (broadview alarm) (gasp and scream) go! go! go! go! go! go! (phone rings) hello? this is mark with broadview security. is everything okay? no. someone just tried to break in. i'm sending help right now. thank you. (announcer) brink's home security is now broadview security. call now to install the standard system for just $99. the proven technology of a broadview security system delivers rapid res

i'm reporting to you from afghanistan, as you know, the helmand province.this is one of the most dangerous areas in afghanistan. which is why the place i'm standing in is necessary. a dusty, desert tent. this is how they take care of people on the front lines. i want to give you an idea of what battlefield medicine is really all about. early morning, kandahar. we've been here just a few minutes. we're already getting an idea of just how busy this hospital is. out there is the busiest airstrip, supposedly in the world, flights landing all the time. also get patients like this into the hospital. this is a very urgent case. patient with lots of bleeding, possible double leg amputation. >> he does have very weak radial pulses. bilateral tourniquets put on a few minutes ago. >> dr. hayes is communicating with the patient, translating, trying to figure out exactly what happened to him. >> reporter: we don't know much. middle aged, afghan national, but here's something. only a quarter of the patients brought here are u.s. or coalition forces. the rest are location

he followed john into the corps he is currently in the helmand province of afghanistan right where thers ago abraham lincoln told us -- excuse me, 146 years ago abraham lynn told us what that debt -- lincoln told us what that debt was. he said it is for us the living to be dedicated to the unfinished work which they have so nobly advanced. he said it is for us to be dedicated to the great task remaining before us. that from these honored dead and from the honored living we take increased devotion to that course for which they gave the last full measure of devotion. that we here are highly resolved that these dead and our veterans will not have served and died in vain. that this nation under god shall have a new birth of freedom. and that know what president lincoln did not say. he did not say government of the white house by the white house, for the white house. he did not say government of the courts by the courts and for the courts. and he most certainly did not say government of the congress by the congress and for the congress. what did he say? government of the people, by the peop

even the province of helmand has seen a 52% decrease. against the -- as we move forward, there is proper resources and a limitation of a common -- will be better success. as far as afghanistan is concerned, and the afghan government is concerned, we are successful. where the international community is concerned, we have issues there, we have views there and we think money has been wasted. >> mr. president, when i interviewed dr. abdullah abdullah last week, he made a specific allegation on this whole drug war issue involving your brother in kandahar. i'm going to play for you what dr. abdullah said. >> i think there's a lot of allegations against his brother in kandahar, there's a lot of -- international organizations have been talking about it. so even if that's the rumor, this has to be stopped and he has to come clean about it. >> mr. president, is your brother a drug trafficker? >> of course not, but i'm not going to engage as i told you on the international media so i will just not respond to that. >> mr. president, a lot is at stak

host: is the concentration of violence in the helmand province? are there other areas affected? guest: the provinces in the south are extremely affected by insurgency but over the past few months, the violence has spread. it has gone to the neighboring provinces as well. these areas of the country that were earlier stable, like the center provinces, and the provinces in the north, we now see sporadic violence. in the north, there has been repeated insurgent violence in the past month. the previously stable area it is now experiencing the violence. host: the concerns about the results of the afghan election. reports here say that president karzai still remains in the lead. what do think this will do as far as stability in the region? guest: we do not have any official figures. it has been more than a week. we still do not know how many afghans voted. as we wait, there are reports of fraud in some parts of the country. it is a bit of a state of limbo. people are getting angry. it does not look like is being addressed. we have to see whether they can actually deal with this. my con

from the southern part of afghanistan to the capital city -- i found 700 families displaced from helmand province. i found ditches, torn canvas, mud structures, an occasional water pump, and that was about it. in human terms, one person was in charge of 100 families as a representative. he had been awakened at 5:00 p.m. by bombs in the province last year and lost members of family. i did meet one member of his family, a 7-year-old pro. near the end of my conversation i realized she had lost an arm. i asked. -- it was a 7-year-old girl. she lost your arm because she was awoken by u.s. bombs that fell on her neighborhood. here one year later i was reading her and she and her family in the 700 other families in the refugee camp were dependent on handouts from afghan businessman. then i return to the obama's inaugural address. i was a delegate to the national convention. i supported his election. yet we must compare the rhetoric where he spoke a few weeks ago about development, governance, his commitment to humanitarian assistance saying that this war will not be won by military means primar

in flat areas like the southern helmand valley detonation wires now may run for more than a mile so theker can remain out of site. and the taliban know that troops regularly stop ahead of culverts to search for bombs. now the taliban are placing bombs where the convoys stop instead of in the culverts. so legislators like senator levin are talking about sending more u.s. military trainers to help the afghans, not more u.s. combat troops, but commanders will tell i, wolf, that anybody in afghanistan in a uniform is going to be in combat one way or the other, and as long as the taliban can keep up this pace of activity, the perception that they have the momentum is going to be very tough to break. wolf? >> it's dangerous all over the place over there whether you're a trainer or a combat troop, doesn't make any difference. barbara, thanks very much. let's bring back jack for "the cafferty file." >> unpleasant anniversary. today marks eight years since the terror attacks of between: this country was changed forever on that fateful tuesday in september. since then the u.s. has invaded two cou

aircrews from the 34th weapons squadron and the 38th rescue squadron supporting the marines in the helmandrovince. over a three-month stretch in the spring, they recovered or treated more than 320 casualti casualties, both military and civilians. and then there was the crew of shocker to when one of the 305th expeditionary rescue squadron based in kandahar. they were called in after an american special forces team and afghan soldiers came under heavy attack. in four successive passes over a hot landing zone, shocker 21 picked up two groups of wounded troops, lay down fire and delivered badly needed in the nation. all told, the expertise and courage of the air force search and rescue teams are making the goal of the golden hour a reality in afghanistan. in the coming months, america's airmen will be tested even more. the war in afghanistan is entering its decisive phase. in a landlocked nation with mountainous terrain and few usable roads, we and our allies are far more dependent on airpower to protect troops and move supplies. this year the air force is on track to deliver over 22 million

the british strategy in hell helmand, the strategy here or there, the u.s. strategy in pack tee ca, one of the problems we face is arrangement of nato. nations view their own provinces as a fiefdom or ponces as the case the u.s. has a regional command, so they deal with that at the expense of dealing with a country as a whole, and it has caused us problems over time. >> i agree with that. i think one of the most significant problems has been the absence for almost eight years of a unified command and a unified strategy. in fact, and people need to understand this, this is important as we think about afghanistan, we have traveled this journey for almost seven years without a strategy. there was sort of a, you know, just a continuing at the expense of iraq. and i think most people have agreed that troops were diverted, resources were deserted, focus was diverted, so it has only been in these last months that people have begun to really hone in and say, how do you adjust? the challenge as i wrote back last february is the clock ticking. the amount of time that'

it's being used to take care of patients here in the helmand province.g, kandahar. we've been here just a few minutes, we're already getting an idea of just how busy this hospital is. out there is the busiest airstrip, supposedly, in the world. flighting landing all the time, to get patient s like this into the hospital. this is a very urgent case, lots of bleeding, possible double leg amputation. >> the tourniquet was put on about 45 minutes ago, bilateral tourniqu tourniquets. >> reporter: dr. hayes is communicating with the patient, translating, trying to figure out exactly what happened to him. we don't know much, middle aged, afghan national. but only a quarter of the patients brought here are u.s. or coalition forces. the rest are locals. >> you have no idea the severity of injuries, they've got to roll the patient, check his back, check his spine. make sure there's nothing else -- >> you can see the tourniquets are still holding. >> reporter: putting big i.v.s in here. there are a couple of tourniquets holding all that blood from coming pouring ou

he followed john into the marine corps and is currently in helmand province, right where the fightingthe men and women throughout the history of this country who have served a great debt. and 165 years ago, abraham lincoln -- excuse me, 146 years ago, abraham lincoln told us what that that was. -- debt was. he said it was for us to dedicate to the work that they have not -- so nobly advanced. he said it was for us to be dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these honored dead and from the honorable living we take increased devotion to that course for which they gave that last full measure of devotion. that we here highly resolve that these dead and our veterans will not have served and died in vain, that this nation under god shall have a new breath of freedom. [cheers and applause] and president lincoln did not say, he did not say the government of the white house, by the white house, for the white house. he did not say government of the courts, by the courts, and for the courts. and he most certainly did not say government of the congress, by the congress, and f