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.

The New Year has brought renewed violence to the Middle East. For 10 days, Israelis and Palestinians have exchanged rocket fire. Five-hundred Palestinians are reported dead, including 100 civilians. As Israel flexes its military muscle with ground troops, Hamas continues to fire rockets deeper into Israel, making the prospect of a ceasefire nothing more than wishful thinking at this point.

President-elect Barack Obama has been silent on the conflict, stating that our nation only needs one president at a time.

It's true that weighing in on specific foreign policy could contradict President Bush and send mixed signals to the global community. But there are about a million people without electricity, food supplies are running short, and hospitals are overburdened in Gaza.

As one United Nations spokesman said, this is a humanitarian crisis.

Now is the time when protocol, and the desire not to step on toes, should take a back seat to both leaders working together before it is too late.

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[Editor's Note: Tonight on the CBS Evening News, you'll see the second installment of our series, "Where They Stand," which is an examination of the issues facing the next president of the United States. This time, Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent Lara Logan tackles how John McCain and Barack Obama propose handling one of the biggest issues of this election: ending the war in Iraq. CBS News producer Max McClellan explains how he encountered the remarkable man featured in tonight's piece – and why he exemplifies this issue.

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Ft. Carson, Colo., is home to the 10th Special Forces Group and one incredible Green Beret named Tim Brigham. We first heard about his story through contacts in the Special Forces community – and as soon as we did, we knew we had to meet him.

Tim is a classic soldier. Understated and modest, but profoundly dedicated to the mission. He'd have to be that way, given all that he's been through. He was badly wounded on the battlefield in northern Iraq in 2005, during his second tour. His unit was ambushed by insurgents; in the midst of heavy fire, Tim's first instinct was to climb to a higher position to get a better shot at the approaching enemy. He told us the safety of his men was the only thing on his mind. As he scrambled to the roof of his disabled humvee...

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David Martin is National Security Correspondent for CBS News.

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The war began in dramatic fashion: Stealth fighters and cruise missiles launching a bolt out of the blue attack against a compound where Saddam Hussein was believed to be spending the night. Saddam survived the strike and perhaps that should have been an omen of the difficulties to come – that it would take more than high tech weapons to get rid of Saddam. It took foot soldiers to flush him out of a hole in the ground. And today it is foot soldiers in the form of the troop surge who have helped produce a reduction in violence.

Donald Rumsfeld used to talk a lot about "transformation," and a great transformation has finally taken place, although not on his watch … and not the one he envisioned. What he had in mind was transforming the Cold War military into a smaller, more agile fighting force. After he left, a larger fighting force was sent into Iraq to conduct a new counterinsurgency strategy.

The conventional wisdom holds that the U.S. wouldn't be in so much trouble in Iraq if Rumsfeld had just sent more troops in at the start. I'm not sure I buy that. For one thing, more troops would have taken longer to get there, so the whole dynamic of the initial invasion would have been different. For another, there was no plan for what to do with more troops. Finally, if more troops had used the same heavy-handed tactics that prevailed in the first years of the occupation, they might have succeeded only in outraging Iraqis even further.

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It was one year ago when President Bush announced he would send 20,000 more troops to Iraq in a "surge," which was meant to turn the tide there.

While daily life is still a struggle for many Iraqis, some things may be working on a grassroots level. For more from my Notebook, just click the monitor.

Kimberly Dozier is a CBS News correspondent based in Washington.

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More than a million folks are expected to gather in Times Square, New York, to ring in the first of January 2008 — just about as far away as you can get from Baghdad or Balad, Kabul or Bagram.

But on one of those glowing signs, Americans can broadcast text messages of support to those troops, thousands of miles away in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Why bother? Vets from Iraq or Afghanistan will tell you, the troops often think: A) the public has forgotten them; or B) the public is down on the war in general, and them in particular.

Rightly or wrongly, many of them take personally the media’s reports of continuing violence, or anti-war demonstrations, or congressional moves to set troop withdrawal deadlines. They perceive these acts as a negative report card on their performance, even while those reporting, marching or negotiating believe what they’re doing ultimately protects the troops. It’s one of those classic "failure to communicate" moments.

So whatever you think of the war, how it was started, how it’s being fought, what it has or will accomplish…a veteran’s group, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, is inviting you to take a moment to tell the guys and gals serving ‘over there’ what you think of them, and the sacrifice they’re making – serving in harm’s way on New Year’s Day.

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Katie gives us a First Look at tonight's CBS Evening News, which includes a report about troops being deployed (and re-deployed) in Iraq.

Just click the monitor to watch.

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