Violence Looms 3 Days Before Afghan Vote

(CBS)  Campaigning must end at midnight Monday for the candidates in Afghanistan's presidential elections, just three days before Thursday's vote.

CBS News chief foreign affairs correspondent Lara Logan reports that an estimated 17 million Afghans are eligible to cast ballots, but how many of them will be able to get safely to the polls is unclear, especially in the Taliban strongholds of southern Afghanistan.

U.S. Marines in the hostile Helmand province continued battling Taliban militants over the weekend, firing mortars into a valley still under the insurgents' control.

Lara Logan's Reporter's Notebook on the tremendously difficult circumstances facing U.S. Marines on the ground in Helmand.

This area, the Nowzad valley, has been the site of intense fighting between militants and Marines as the U.S. tries to establish enough security for local people to come out of their homes and vote safely on Thursday.

The Taliban have vowed to attack polling sites and threatened to kill anyone who goes to vote.

Brigadier General Larry Nicholson is the most senior U.S. Marine in Afghanistan, and commander of all the troops in the south. He's adamant that votes will be cast in the restive region, but not overtly optimistic as to how many.

"Yes, there will be an election here. And it may be modest, but, you know, as far as I'm concerned, as long as one person comes out to vote... then that's a success," Nicholson told CBS News.

Security is tightening across the country as the campaigning enters its final moments.

Sunday night, the top three presidential contenders, including President Hamid Karzai, took part in an American-style televised debate.

Karzai leads in all of the latest polls, but not by enough. He'll likely face a runoff against his strongest challenger, former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah.

President Karzai's security chiefs announced that the Taliban have agreed to allow more polling stations to be open in the south, but the Taliban quickly denied any deal had been struck.

In taliban controlled areas of the country, there are no ballot papers and no polling stations to open.

[Mrs_G]

My fiance' is in afghan fighting and people need to realize how scared the families are everyday for them. I hear from my fiance' usually everyday but the days I don't really make me nervous.

We all need to give them alot of credit for doing what they do, I am very very proud of my fiance'

[wayoutwestcolorado]

Loose lips sink ships

[stevenga777]

And now women in Afghanistan have lost all their rights under a new bill signed by Afghanistan's President Karzi...implementation of Sharia law like under the Taliban. Also a new law that a husband can starve his wife if she doesn't give him sex was signed by President Karzi! And this is what my son in the U.S. Army in Afghanistan is fighting for?....Sounds like it is time to leave.

By the way our combat troops (U.S. Army) in Afghanistan are short of everything from food to bullets to vehicles to other very simple things that I can't say on here without endangering our guys. You name it and they are short of it. And this is the American Army. Our troops are fighting this war without enough supplies and equipment.

I send about 2 packages a week for my son in Afghanistan to share with his squad and other military family members do the same for their soldier over there. As a matter of fact last week my friend just sent my son 5 packages...2 with food, 3 with military equipment.

I was going to give my son my 9mm Sig/Saur pistol in case he ever gets into a tight spot....but being only 19 he is not allowed to carry a pistol in Afghanistan and was not allowed to take it. But he is a machine gunner in the U.S. Army carrying the SAW (M-249 Light Machine Gun). Stupid, in combat he can carry a machine gun and all other sorts of weapons but not a pistol.

Also he spent over $100 to buy his own magazines for his M-4 rifle...the ones he was given are totally worn out. Who wants to risk their rifle jamming because of worn out magazines misfeeding rounds to your rifle. All the soldiers spend hundreds of dollars to buy their own equipment and and so do families in support of them.

This is an exerpt from an email I recieved 3 days ago from the wife of a Staff Sergeant in another platoon of my son's company...

""They are obviously very short on supplies. That is a general complaint heard from all. My husband is in the xxxx platoon. That doesn't mean they dont do a lot together though so just ask him. I know my hubby was suppose to leave within the last xxxx on some big mission. Not sure exactly when they'd be leaving, but he said he wouldn't be able to talk to me for a while so if your son doesn't get to call you back just know it may be a little while.""

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Also had a call from my other son 2 nights ago, a 20 year old F-16 Mechanic in the U.S. Air Force at a joint base in Iraq.

Only six out of thirteen F-16's are combat ready to fly. The jets are worn out. They can fly but certain systems needed for combat are not functioning. They will fix some of them but after one flight something else is broke. Also they do not recieve new parts for the F-16's, they only recieve used/rebuilt parts. If a panel is cracked my son sends it in and he gets a used replacement panel that was taken off of another jet and repaired and sent to him. Once the panel he sent in is repaired it will be sent as a replacement part to some other jet. They do not get any new parts at all for the jets. Even the engines have been rebuilt upteen times. Many times the used parts for the F-16's don't fit so they go to the grinder to be made to fit.

Morale is also down...for the time being they cannot recieve or send mail from the joint base he is at in Iraq. I send packages, cards to him through the U.S. Postal Service. From what I got from my son is that the mail is flown in by Fed-Ex and the Iraqi government wants Fed-Ex to pay the Iraqi government for landing in Iraq. Fed-ex told the Iraqi government to shove it. So for the time being there is no mail coming or going for the airmen/soldiers there.

[TheMasses2016]

Thanks for the update and bless all of our service men/women and their families.

I carried the M249 SAW in my squad in the USMC. I felt very safe with that weapon.