All Blog Posts from World Watch

This analysis was written by CBS News chief foreign affairs correspondent Lara Logan, currently embedded with U.S. Troops in Afghanistan.

---

There are a few things that really annoy me about the current Afghan debate. As I head back to Afghanistan to cover the Aug. 20 presidential election, I feel compelled to write about them, in the hope that someone will be paying attention.

First is the idea that most — the popularly quoted figure is some 80 percent — of insurgents are "economic," and as such, are driven purely by money. The argument is made that poor villagers are easily recruited by Taliban and al Qaeda leaders who pay them anything from $10 to lay a single bomb, to $400 as a monthly "salary" — more cash than Afghans could earn in neglected, poverty-stricken areas.

Let us not forget that the unemployment rate is 40 percent in Afghanistan and literacy rates barely above 30 percent for men – less than half that number for women. So the argument would seem to make sense — superficially.

I disagree. It's time to blow this argument to pieces.

Read full post…

We were crouched down in a field, the earth steaming with the heat of the sun and the air thick with humidity. Two Marines were kneeling down beside me.

"All we've done since we got here is get blown up," one of them said. And then they started to talk.

On a patrol exactly like this one a few days ago in southern Helmand province, they had been walking along the canal. One of their Marines stepped on a relatively small explosive device hidden in the ground, most likely a landmine.

The problem was, that mine was linked to a bigger explosive device in a deadly daisy chain that did not miss its mark. The Marine who was walking behind was hit by the bigger, secondary explosion.

"We ran as soon as we heard it go off but when we got to the canal the only thing that was there was his body armor. He was nowhere," they told me, "just gone."

Read full post…

We were standing on the tarmac on the military side of Kabul airport. I was in a long line of Danish soldiers heading south. We had to hitch a ride on their plane to get to the Marine Brigade Headquarters at Camp Bastion, because the British plane that was supposed to take us the night before had broken down.

The Marine officer accompanying me suddenly exclaimed in dismay, and I looked up. Ahead of us was a U.S. cargo plane, with the American flag visible inside, stretched across the interior. Here that only means one thing: death.

As we watched, the crew carefully removed the body from the plane, carrying it to a waiting vehicle on a stretcher. I could see the green plastic body bag glinting in the burning sun.

Read full post…

As a top U.S. Marines commander said that more Afghan soldiers with better training are needed to help clear the Taliban from a key poppy-growing providence in Southern Afghanistan, an online video was released Wednesday giving an inside look at Marines on the ground in the company.

In this video provided by DVIDS, who works with the military's public affairs unit to distribute images and video of soldiers in combat zones, Marines from Fox Company, 2nd Battalion are shown conducting Operation Strike of the Sword. The Marines of Fox Company were met with no resistance from the Taliban, but several IEDs were found. Scenes include Marines waiting then boarding helicopters and on patrol in Sorhduz, a village in between Nawa, to the north, and Garmsir, to the south.

Click below to watch the video.

U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan have launched a major counter-insurgency mission in the country's Helmand Province, according to information released today by the Marines.

The operation is being conducted by about 4,000 Marines and U.S. Navy sailors along with 650 Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police forces. Two aviation brigades are also supporting the mission.

The goal of the operation, dubbed Operation Khanjar ("Strike of the Sword") is "to provide security for population centers along the Helmand River valley and connect local citizens with their legitimate government while establishing stable and secure conditions for national elections scheduled for August," according to a Marines press release.

"This is the start of the first big counter-insurgency operation launched by the Marines since they went into the south as part of the buildup ordered by President Obama," noted CBS News Pentagon correspondent David Martin.

Read full post…

Cami McCormick is a CBS News radio correspondent, who is traveling with U.S. Gen. James Conway.

---

The top U.S. Marine commander, Gen. James Conway, traveled to Pakistan Monday for talks with that country’s army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Kiyani. With thousands of additional American troops heading to Afghanistan, possibly including thousands of Marines, Conway said he wanted to express to Kiyana "concern that we can do a lot in Afghanistan, but unless the problem in Pakistan gets solved, it’s not over."

Read full post…