Mission Critical for Troops in Afghanistan

By: Lara Logan

With the presidential election just days away, the Marine mission in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan has taken on even greater significance. CBS News chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan provides this first-hand account of one covert operation:

Echo Company is heading out to a known Taliban village just a mile from their small combat outpost deep in southern Helmand.

This time they've chosen an unusual way in. By coming through a canal, the Marines are hoping to have the element of surprise.

In the month and a half since Echo company fought their way in, they've never been to this village without getting into a fight. And they've never been all the way in water that's often up to their necks.

Sergeant Anibal Paz advises his troops that they've been spotted and says over the radio that there are four military aged males due west. He says the mission will continue, however.

The Marines keep going even though they now realize they could be heading straight into an ambush.

Read more about the upcoming election from CBS News correspondent David Martin.

Read more from Lara Logan about the Marines in Afghanistan and her thoughts about the election in CBSNews.com's World Watch blog here.

They're trying to secure the area so people can vote. But the nearest polling station is 12 miles to the north and along the way is hardcore Taliban territory. So few people are expected to make the journey.

The troop pauses again. This time it's to search for IEDs, or improvised explosive devices - a Taliban weapon of choice. Marine engineers go ahead to clear the route. They quickly return, hurrying to get away from an IED they've just found in the exact place they often use to enter the village.

The Marines have just found an IED in their way so everyone's pulling back so they don't get blown up

After four hours in the water waiting to destroy the IED, the marines get word the enemy has moved out. They start to head back, taking cover as the IED is finally blown up.

It's rare for these Marines not to get into a gun battle. They say it will happen tomorrow, like it has almost every day since they arrived.

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by zonkzilla August 19, 2009 3:55 PM EDT: The marines need to protect Americans against the right wing Fascists.
Why does the US allow intimidation of Americans here in the US but not the people of Afghanistan?

"This is the third report in a week of someone bringing a gun to an event where the President was speaking. Last Tuesday a man was arrested before Obama's New Hampshire health care town hall for carrying an unlicensed loaded gun. Also outside the New Hampshire town hall, a man was seen with a (legal) handgun strapped to his leg, holding a sign referencing the famous Jefferson quote: "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants."

UPDATE: The Associated Press is now reporting that there were actually about a dozen armed people among the protesters in Phoenix: "; Reply to this comment

by zonkzilla August 19, 2009 3:51 PM EDT

We need to bring our troops home and let them protect Americans from suppression by the right wing fascists at town hall meetings who scream at and threaten Americans for supporting the health care bill. The fascists have also been showing up at meeting places with rifles to intimidate people from going to the meetings to listen and express views.

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by Joe_NY_15 August 19, 2009 3:57 PM EDT: by zonkzilla August 19, 2009 3:51 PM EDT

The Posse Comatatus Act of 1878 prohibits the use of the Military inside the borders of the U.S.A. against it's own citizens....hence the formation of the National Guard.

I bet you libs would love to stop American citizens from voicing their opinions....it's such typical liberalism, to squash anyone who dares to disagree (attempt to, I should say)


by daffy64 August 20, 2009 8:35 AM EDT: I bet you libs would love to stop American citizens from voicing their opinions....it's such typical liberalism, to squash anyone who dares to disagree (attempt to, I should say)

--

Dissagreeing is one thing. Bringing loaded guns to town hall meetings and screaming is another.

Remember, "Liberals" dissagreed with W. for eight long years.

by Joe_NY_15 August 19, 2009 12:21 PM EDT

by paddyhayes August 19, 2009 3:08 AM EDT

As a New Yorker, I thank you for your rebuttal of the utter nonsense these idiots who see melted metal and say "see ! see !"

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by TheMasses2016 August 19, 2009 12:29 PM EDT: How was the game Joe?


by Joe_NY_15 August 19, 2009 2:40 PM EDT: by TheMasses2016 August 19, 2009 12:29 PM EDT
How was the game Joe?
_________________

It was great !!! (for pre-season)...very hot though....I bet you can't wait either, 1st week is Giants/Skins...sorry ahead of time, if we hurt your QB....(j/k)


by steve54z August 19, 2009 11:15 AM EDT: American Marines protect Helmand Farmers from aggressive Rebels who indulge themselves with LSD and potent sinsemilla smoke. A valued harvest of poppies and cannabis must be kept safe and secure from these thieves. Criminals would convert medicine plants to heinous narcotics for injection with methamphetamine. How many more Children will be massacred by these dope-crazed Felons still living illegally in this province of Afghanistan?; Reply to this comment

by hologram5 August 19, 2009 11:03 AM EDT

paddyhayes:

For your information, NANO-THERMITE was found in traces in the rubble of the twin towers. Yes it is the ONLY thing that will melt the high carbon steel used in the girders of the towers. This basically tells us that the planes that hit the towers were just for "SHOW". They heard explosions in the towers before they fell. "They" being the firemen, police officers and first responders that were there to help. This again, tells us that these two huge buildings WERE NOT brought down by kerosine burning. This was not done by Islamist extremists that were living in caves and huts prior to coming here. The only place known to get this is the DOD labs. Watch the video put out by a San Diego news station that had Richard Gage on it. Google Richard Gage and read and understand.
The man that posted that the Afgan "so called war on terror" is nothing more than a smoke screen meant to hide the real threat. Our own Gov, whether it is the CIA or the military industrial complex or whatever, who knows.

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by paddyhayes August 19, 2009 10:47 PM EDT: Oh, it was found, was it? And your verified and unbiased source would be? "Traces"? With all the thermite that would be needed, "traces" are all that are found? "Traces" could have other completely mundane sources. I would not be surprised at all to see some conglomerations of iron and aluminum in a burned building where both were used in construction.

Again: The girders did not melt due to the heat of the kerosene fires. Nobody is saying they melted. They softened enough that the rivets that held things together failed. That is why the building started crumbling at the point where the planes impacted. Now, when the building collapsed in on itself and the fires (yes, there were voids enough in the rubble to allow plenty of air) lasted long enough to melt the steel in pockets where it was insulated by the concrete rubble for days, you could surely get still-molten pools of steel. An aluminothermic reaction would have been long since over, since those reactions are intensely hot and very short in duration.

No other building collapsing due to fire? How many samples do we have of buildings struck by modern aircraft spilling kerosene into them? How many samples of buildings of that height burning at all? How many buildings that do burn contain combustibles that burn at greater than 300 degrees Celsius?

Explosions in the basement? No doubt. burning kerosene pours down the elevator shafts and splashes all over the "gee-whiz" gear there. Stuff explodes.

The fireballs? Again, a bunch of burning kerosene falls into the basement. Do you expect it to behave calmly?

1. The building did not collapse from the bottom up, but from the top down.

2. You don't need to melt high carbon steel to demolish a building. You need only steel cutting charges. They are more predictable in their sudden efficacy than thermite, which takes some time to work. In demolition, you need your reactions to occur violently and in sequence and in small fractions of seconds. Thermite, though it works quickly, is not quick enough.

Richard Gage is a known and debunked crank -- as are many of the other conspiracy theorists. He may have had a nice career designing buildings.

I had a nice career making things go away to the accompanyment of big, loud booms. If that was a deliberate job, I wouldn't ever want to work with any of the "professionals" who did it.

If the Government, the CIA and the Military are out to get you, your should arm yourself.

Just because you are paranoid does not mean there isn't someone who really is out to get you, right?


by babooph August 19, 2009 12:47 AM EDT: Our troops must be sure the crooked election comes off well for the US propaganda system-so noble to fight & die for.; Reply to this comment


by thusspokezara August 18, 2009 11:39 PM EDT: Obama needs to get tough with Israel. He should tell them: Either you stop the building or I am sending Jimmy Carter to Tehran to negotiate your future.; Reply to this comment


by thusspokezara August 18, 2009 11:33 PM EDT: Mr. Obama should retaliate against the Blue Dog Democrats by DISTRIBUTING the Guantanamo inmates to their Congressional Districts.; Reply to this comment


by cattiej August 18, 2009 9:04 PM EDT: We sunk 33 Billion dollars plus into Afghanistan, Karzi is a corrupt politican who is playing both sides of the fence. Obama promised to bring our troops home, he hasn't, nor will he..For someone who was never in the military he sure has become gun ho!. This is an unjust war. There are 87,000 American weapons missing in this country. The Afghanistan police take them and sell them to the Taliban. We are being had..to the tune of billions and billions of dollars, the killing of our American soldiers. Meanwhile, back at the farm, we are losing our jobs, our homes, our health insurance and our politicans are raping the American public. Time for a tea party. Bring our troops home. Parents, don't let your kids enlist in the Army or any military until our troops are brought home. This is an unjust war. God, Bless America, because sure as heck our politicans aren't.!; Reply to this comment

by wyodutch August 18, 2009 9:02 PM EDT

More war-mongering propaganda masquerading as legitimate news.

There ain't one thing in Afghanistan worth fighting for... not one.

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by paddyhayes August 18, 2009 11:59 PM EDT: "How about the guys who gave sanctuary to Bin Laden? I guess they're not worth punishing. (People leaping from the WTC might have disagreed with your elegant theories.)"

Yes. How about them?

We should have blown through them in as much as they stood in our way, done what we needed to do to Al Qaeda and taken out Bin Laden.

Instead, the Man-Child contracted that coup-de-grace at Tora Bora to local war lords and let his handlers turn his vacant gaze toward Iraq -- which had nothing whatever to do with 9/11.

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