All Blog Posts from Couric & Co.

It's a decision that some say could ultimately define his presidency.

President Obama announced that he'll send an additional 30-thousand troops into Afghanistan, with a preliminary drawdown of forces expected to begin in the summer of 2011.

While the strategy has elements of compromise in it, the White House is taking heat from both sides…the liberal democrats who want U.S. troops out, and the hawks who say projecting an exit date only emboldens the enemy.

And then, there's the matter of cost...as much as 30-billion dollars more and no clear way to pay the bill.

Congressman Dave Obey and Senator Carl Levin have each proposed a war tax...calling for shared sacrifice from the American people during this difficult time.

But tax or no tax, the administration now has the unenviable task of selling this new strategy to those same American people...and coming up for a palatable plan to pay for it, perhaps the biggest test yet of his power of persuasion.

That's a page from my notebook.

I'm Katie Couric, CBS News.

They call themselves the voices of honor and they're touring the country this summer to take aim at the Pentagon's "don't ask, don't tell" policy. This coalition of military vets and gay rights activists - that includes a member of Congress who served in Iraq -backs legislation to allow gays and lesbians to serve openly.

Since 1993, more than 12 thousand men and women have been kicked out of the military because they did tell. The bill's sponsors say that hurts national security, especially when troops are stretched so thin.

But they face an intense battle from those who argue changing the rules now, during war, would undermine readiness. They fear morale would suffer if soldiers knew a buddy is gay.

Whatever Congress decides, one thing will not change. Gays and lesbians will still serve in uniform, fighting for our freedom, whether or not they have the freedom to acknowledge who they really are.

That's a page from my notebook.

I'm Katie Couric, CBS News.

Sharyl Attkisson is investigative correspondent for CBS News.

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What's worse than an earmark that wastes tax dollars and abuses the system by allowing Congress to funnel money outside the normal process to favored businesses or entities?

Plenty, you might say. But how about a secret, classified earmark that costs American lives?

That's the allegation from a military intelligence officer Maj. Eric Egland. In an exclusive interview, Egland told me the amazing story of being on the ground in Iraq at the height of IED (Improvised Explosive Device) deaths and injuries. It was his job to evaluate a large contract that was supposed to send resources and trained people to attack the IED networks. It wasn't working. Egland says it didn't take long for him to discover the contractor was, in his words, completely unqualified for the task at hand. The workers, he said, lacked the experience, resources and know-how to do this important job. He wondered ...

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Ever since he was killed in Afghanistan, the story of Pat Tillman has cast a shadow over the U.S. military.

Tillman's mother Mary speaks out in her first television interview about the tragedy this Sunday on "60 Minutes."

Just click on the video monitor for the rest of my notebook.

Iraq's "Triangle of Death" is one of the last places on earth you want to be if you're an American in trouble. Our Mark Strassmann traveled with U.S. troops searching for three missing soldiers. They are hoping for a big break that may never appear. Click here to read his Reporter’s Notebook.

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Amy Birnbaum is a producer for CBS News based in New York.

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The story that correspondent Kelly Wallace and I reported for tonight's Evening News got rolling as a result of an e-mail. An associate producer, Jenny Gold, read a viewer email on Brittany and Robbie Bergquist. She proposed doing a story on them as part of our series on The American Spirit. When I read Jenny’s note about the kids and their program, I thought, they can’t be all that smart and generous AND nice, can they? I mean, not both of them in one family. I have a 13-year-old, and though he’s still the greatest kid in the world and all that, I have to admit that generosity is definitely an acquired skill.

But Robbie and Brittany are for real, as are their parents. They started this charity as a single project, to help a soldier’s father pay off a massive phone bill from cellphone calls from Iraq. The kids heard the story on the radio, and then actually ran up to their rooms and took money out of their piggy banks. That was about $21. Many of us would end it there, but they made it a kind of civics project; they organized a bake sale, got a donation from a local bank and eventually helped pay off the bill.

By now their parents, Bob and Gail Bergquist, were in it to help. At first the family wanted to send cellphones overseas, but the Pentagon wasn’t too happy with that plan. So they came up with the idea of turning in the old phones to a recycler, and using the money earned on the phones to buy phone cards for troops. It’s such an appealing story, and back three years ago, Brittany and Robbie made the rounds of talk shows and news programs. They got a little media savvy and loved the idea that limos were pulling up outside their front door to take them to a nearby television studio. You’d think it would have gone to their heads, but these kids are pretty grounded. Somehow they manage to work on this charity along with keeping up grades in honor classes, playing sports, seeing friends, and of course, doing their share of talking on the phone.

In doing this story, we were really struck by how many people have been impacted by the work of these two kids and their parents...

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Sharyl Attkisson is the Capitol Hills Correspondent for CBS News.

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The Purple Heart story I reported for tonight's Evening News really tugged at my heartstrings.

Like most Americans, I suppose, I’m a big fan of the work our soldiers do for us every day. I've traveled and even trained with the military for stories. I embedded with the Air Force, flew on a combat mission over Kosovo on a B-52, flew on an F-15 Combat Air Patrol flight, and traveled to Peru with Army soldiers. The expectations put upon the young men and women who protect us -- and the extent to which they're able to deliver -- never ceases to amaze me.

The story is about a soldier injured in combat and approved for a Purple Heart, but denied the award further up the chain of command. It's happened to more than just one soldier. Why and how many? It's hard to say. The Pentagon doesn't track how many Purple Hearts are "disapproved" or the reasons. But we found pockets of cases, and evidence that at least five members of Congress have tried to intervene on behalf of various troops.

For the soldiers, it's not just about getting honor or glory. You have to get inside their heads a little bit and imagine what they've gone through. The mental and physical energy they've used to get through day after week after month in tense combat situations with their lives in danger. The time they've given up with their lives, their families, their businesses. A brush with death in the form of a combat injury--one that often renders them permanently disabled--is a known risk. But once they've made that sacrifice, they're promised that a grateful nation recognizes them with a Purple Heart: something tangible they can look at when they suffer the emotional and physical effects of their national service.

To have a justified award denied-- whether due to bureaucratic bungling, lost paperwork, or other reasons-- sends them into an emotional tailspin. It's difficult enough to morph back into civilian life and cope with ongoing injuries. I would guess most of them don't have the wherewithal to try to battle the how's and why's of the denial. And why should they have to beg for something to which they're entitled?

If you know someone else who's possibly been denied a legitimate Purple Heart, I'd like to know about it. You can e-mail me at the CBS Evening News address: evening@cbsnews.com.

Correspondent Wyatt Andrews has a glimpse of some casualties of war you may not have heard about: veterans buried by bureaucracy.

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We often lament the fact that over 3,000 Americans have died in Iraq, but here's another number the nation has yet to confront: 176,000. This is the number of veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan who have filed disability claims with the Department of Veteran's Affairs -- a number that has swamped VA, or to be more accurate, buried the VA in paperwork. Because of a pre-existing backlog of claims (which depending on how you count it ranges from 400,000 to 600,000!), thousands of returning vets are waiting far too long for claims determinations--and benefits--at a time when they've been retired from the service and are out on the economy, looking for work, searching for the next phase in their lives and expecting a bit more from the people who sent them to war.

In our Evening News story tonight, we profile a 23-year-old Iraq amputee, Sean Lewis of Dale City Virginia, a now-retired Army veteran who lost most of his right leg and some of this hearing to a mortar blast. Sean, like a lot of veterans we spoke to, tells the story of how there are two VA's. There's the VA Hospital system, which (after waiting for their appointments) most vets rate as excellent. And then there's the VA benefit claim system which Sean calls, "horrible...probably the worst in the world." After 8 months he's still waiting for a final disability rating, which determines his check. To be fair to the VA, the system began partial payments to him based on his lost leg, but the rest of the story he tells -- of lost records, duplicate doctors' appointments and constant bureaucratic delay -- amounts to what he calls "eight months of chasing your tail." The VA told him just last week they've resolved all but two of his claims--in other words, it's still not final.

His story is important because he isn't alone. Every major Veterans' Service Organization, the VFW, American Legion, DAV, AmVets, all of the agencies that deal with the VA every day say the agency is overwhelmed, burdened by a cumbersome appeals process and badly in need of more staff.

The only person we found to disagree with the staffing problem is the Secretary of the DVA, Jim Nicholson, who told me the VA is properly staffed and funded. My bet is he's in for a pounding from the new Democratic Congress, which has a whole series of hearings scheduled on how to reduce the backlog and upgrade the system after 5 plus years of war.

I think most Americans will find unacceptable the very notion that returning veteran's might be ill-served in any way.

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CBS News correspondent Randall Pinkston is at Camp Tagi in Iraq, one of the biggest U.S. military bases in the region. It's also a prime target for insurgent attacks.

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A viewer sent this to us today: part of an e-mail he got from his son in Iraq.

It strikes me as serious, thoughtful, and concerned. I imagine there are a lot of parents who share his concerns -- about their children, and about this war and the news they are hearing about it.

Below is his letter, and his son's e-mail:

Katie,

I am the father of a 23 year old 1st Lieutenant in the Army. He is presently deployed and we are fortunate that he is able to send us an occasional e-mail.

Yesterday he sent an email and I thought you may be interested in his “on the ground” view of the war.

To give you a little background, my son – Bryan Patrick Smith, graduated from West Point in 2005 and is presently a platoon leader with the 1st Calvary Division...

Here is the part of the email I found so compelling to pass on to you:

“It is pretty interesting operating in this area. I have always understood that the media reports what people are interested in hearing but I never realized to what extent that they really ignore the good things that are going on over here...

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