Here are statistics for the first two months in 2010:

Afghanistan Jan. 2010

IED Incidents: 727
Found/cleared: 407
Ineffective: 226
Effective attacks: 67
Coalition Forces Killed: 32
Coalition Forces Wounded: 137

Afghanistan Feb. 2010

IED Incidents: 721
Found/cleared: 410
Ineffective: 198
Effective attacks: 91
Coalition Forces Killed: 28
Coalition Forces Wounded: 176

And here are the data year-to-year in Afghanistan, 2007-09:

Afghanistan 2007

IED Incidents: 2,677
Found/cleared: 1,158
Ineffective: 1,136
Effective attacks: 206
Coalition Forces Killed: 77
Coalition Forces Wounded: 415

Afghanistan 2008

IED Incidents 3,867
Found/cleared: 1,892
Ineffective: 1,470
Effective attacks 387
Coalition Forces Killed: 183
Coalition Forces Wounded: 790

Afghanistan 2009

IED Incidents: 8,159
Found/cleared: 4,180
Ineffective: 2,927
Effective attacks 821
Coalition Forces Killed: 322
Coalition Forces Wounded: 1,818

(Courtesy of the Department of Defense’s Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization.)

P.W. Singer

Our show today with military robotics expert P.W. Singer took a hard look at the implications of the U.S. military’s increasingly wide push to use cutting-edge technology to defend troops, survey areas, and kill enemies.

Singer told Tom Ashbrook that a revolution is now underway, comparable to the World War I era when mechanized warfare overturned the whole notion of conflict. And this latest technological revolution, Singer warned, profoundly changes the way society relates to war, accelerating trends that were already unfolding:

We no longer declare war anymore. We no longer have a draft. We no longer buy war bonds. So the barriers to war in our society were already dropping. And now we have this technology that allows us to carry out these acts of war without having to send people into harm’s way. And so it allows  you to go to war, it allows the nation to go to war, really without reflecting on it.

Singer went on to suggest that this is what we now see playing out in Pakistan, where the number of airstrikes by U.S. drones would qualify as war.  “We’ve had more drone strikes into Pakistan than we had manned bomber strikes in the opening round of the Kosovo War,” Singer said. “But we don’t call it a war, because we view it differently for some reason.”

He decried the notion of society celebrating “YouTube war,” where flashy video clips of robotic killing and combat are put up on the Internet to be viewed for “fun.” We’ll avoid posting any of those, but we thought it might be instructive to look up close at the technologies that Singer is talking about.

The Predator drone is perhaps the best-known unmanned/robotic vehicle used by the U.S. military. Here’s an interesting test and analysis of its capabilities:

Here’s the “Talon,” an attack robot that Singer discusses in his new book:

Singer also looks at the “Packbot,” a tiny rover made by iRobot for reconnaissance, and for defusing bombs:

The CRAM, or Counter-Rocket, Artillery and Mortar, has been used against insurgent attacks in Iraq. It’s sometimes referred to as “R2 D2,” after the Star Wars droid, given its round, turret shape. It spots incoming shells and uses a spray of fire to shoot them down. Developed by Raytheon, here it is in its test phase:

Wired magazine’s Danger Room blog is a clearinghouse for all kinds of stories on new military experiments and technological developments. Here’s a video the blog highlighted on a hummingbird-style “nano” drone that is being explored:

The Pentagon’s own news service reports occasionally on its latest high-tech gadgets and robotic technologies. This is a report last year on its “Mule,” a robotic transport vehicle developed by Lockheed Martin:

Along those lines, here’s what the “Crusher” looks like, a rugged ground vehicle developed by Carnegie Mellon University:

Finally, here’s the MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial drone, a bigger, faster version of its military cousin, the Predator. The two have been in the air in Iraq, and in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region:

Lt. Col. William McCollough, Commanding Officer of the 1st Battalion 5th Marines, talks with local elders during a planned meeting, in Nawa district, Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, Oct. 6. (AP)

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Decision time is looming on U.S. troops and Afghanistan. Again this week, the White House war council meets in the Situation Room. On the table, a Pentagon request for 40,000 — maybe 60,000 or 80,000 – more troops in the field.

This is a watershed decision. Huge. Yet much of the public debate seems far from realities on the ground: the bomb-scarred streets and mountain passes and distant outposts up against the Taliban.

This hour, On Point: We’ll go to correspondents reporting from the heart of the conflict, for ground truth, on-the-ground reality, in Afghanistan.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Joining us from Kabul, Afghanistan, is Laura King, foreign correspondent for the Los Angeles Times. She reported recently on an attack on U.S. bases near the Pakistani border that left eight Americans dead.

Joining us from Essex, Connecticut, is Pam Constable, foreign correspondent for The Washington Post. She has been covering India, Pakistan and Afghanistan since 1998. She is now based in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and reported recently on Afghan attitudes toward the U.S. troop presence.

And from New York, we’re joined by Martin Smith, documentary filmmaker and correspondent for the PBS series Frontline. Winner of four Emmys and three George Polk Awards, his many Frontline documentaries include “Return of the Taliban” (2006), “In Search of Al Qaeda” (2002), and “Hunting bin Laden” (1999/2001). His new documentary, “Obama’s War,” based on his on-the-ground reporting in Afghanistan and Pakistan, premieres tonight on PBS.

Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, gestures during his news conference on health care legislation, Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2009. (AP)

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Healthcare moves and missile-shield news this week.

In the Senate, Max Baucus finally delivers his proposal on healthcare reform. Questions now: Will he get a single Republican vote? Will enough Democrats sign on to pass or change the bill? Was it worth trying to compromise?

Poland and the Czech Republic will not have American missiles aimed over Russia at Iran. There are better ways to defend, says President Obama — and George W. Bush’s defense secretary, Robert Gates.

We’ve got trade war talk. Carter on race. This hour, On Point: our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Michael Gerson, columnist for The Washington Post, contributor to Newsweek, and senior research fellow at the Institute for Global Engagement.

Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher of The Nation. You can read her latest writings on politics at her “Editor’s Cut” blog.

Jack Beatty, On Point news analyst and senior editor at The Atlantic.

Flags planted on the Mall for "12,000 Flags for 12,000 Patriots” protest in 2007. At the time, The Human Rights Campaign, which organized the protest, said that the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy had been responsible for the discharge of at least 12,000 military personnel. (Flickr/M.V. Jantzen; Click for full image)

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Twenty of the 26 NATO nations allow open military service by gays and lesbians: Great Britain, Australia, Canada, Israel. The United States does not.

Since 1993, U.S. policy on gays in the military has been “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Thirteen thousand servicemen and women have been discharged under that policy. Candidate Barack Obama promised to change it.

So far, it’s unchanged. A new national campaign aims to raise the heat for change. Opponents of open gay service are digging in.

This hour, On Point: gays in the U.S. military, and the fight now over “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Laura Meckler is a reporter for the Wall Street Journal

Eric Alva is an ex-marine and a volunteer with the Voices of Honor campaign which will be traveling around the country to put pressure on Washington to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. He joined the marines in 1990, at age 19, and served in Somalia and was stationed in Japan and California for 10 years. In March 2003, Alva’s unit was among the first to cross Kuwait’s border into Iraq for the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Three hours into the ground war, he stepped out of his vehicle and triggered a landmine. His right leg was so badly damaged that it needed to be amputated. He became the first American wounded in the war and the war’s first Purple Heart recipient. Alva retired as a staff sergeant in June 2004.

Julie Sohn is an Iraq war veteran and former Marine Corps Captain. She has been station in Japan, Parris Island, South Carolina, and Falluja, Iraq. She was active duty from 1999 to 2003, and in the reserves from 2003 until 2008, when she was discharged for speaking publically for the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. She now works for the Los Angeles Police Department in its Use of Force Division.

Patrick Murphy has represented Pennsylvania’s Eighth District, in the Eastern part of the state, since 2007. He was the first Iraq war veteran elected to Congress. He served in Baghdad from 2003-2004 as a Captain in the Army’s elite 82nd Airborne Division, and was later awarded the Bronze Star for Service. He is trying to gain enough votes in the House now to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and is working closely with the Voices of Honor campaign.

Dustin Siggins joined the Federal Reserves in 2004, the New Hampshire Army National Reserves in 2006 and the Washington Army National Reserves in January 2009. He graduated from Plymouth State University in 2008. He is 23 years old and blogged about Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, calling it a compromise that worked.

Vice President Joe Biden awards the Bronze Star to Maj. Lisa Garcia during a welcome home ceremony at Fort Bragg, N.C., Wednesday, April 8, 2009. Biden welcomed home the XVIII Airborne Corps from Iraq after their second deployment. (AP)

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U.S. troops were back in the spotlight in recent days: with the new President in Baghdad; greeted home by Vice President Joe Biden at Fort Bragg; carried from a troop transport at Delaware Air Force Base in a coffin, the first homecoming of American war dead from Iraq or Afghanistan ever to be seen in the media.

None of these comings and goings are new to American military families. For years now, they have hugged and cried and waved goodbye and waited. Borne the daily burden of two long wars. We’re checking in with them today.

This hour, On Point: Military families in the time of long wars.

You can join the conversation. Is this your story? Your neighbor’s story? At home, doing double-parenting, with a husband or wife away, for a long time, at war?

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Rebekah Sanderlin. Her husband is a master sergeant in the Army, stationed at Ft. Bragg. He got back home from his last tour at the end of January. She’s mother of Bo, 4, and daughter Rudy, 7 months old. She writes the column and blog “Operation Marriage” for the Fayetteville Observer. She is also an occasional essayist for NPR.

Kelly Wright. Her husband Whit is a major in the Army, stationed at Fort Bragg. He has served three tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. He returned from his last deployment a year ago. She’s mother of Hadley, who turns 3 next weekend, and is pregnant with another daughter, due in July — three weeks before her husband ships out. She spent 5 of her 7 years as a military spouse writing the “Home Front” column for the Fayetteville Observer.

Fadia Champlain. Her husband Lucas is an army specialist and currently serving his first tour in Iraq. Her son Martin, a sergeant in the Army, is now in Afghanistan, on his fourth tour. Both are based out of Fort Drum. She’s mother of Martin, 25, Cassie, 24, and Adam, 10. Fadia works with the base’s “Family Readiness Group.”

We asked our guests if they’d share personal photos with us, and they graciously sent the pictures here, so that our listeners can put a human face on the stories they hear on the show today:

Rebekah Sanderlin and her kids, in a photo taken during her husband's most recent deployment.

Kelly Wright, her husband, and their daughter, at his homecomeing from his latest deployment.

Fadia Champlain and her husband.

Fadia Champlain's husband, Lucas, and son, Martin, at Martin's deployment.

Adm. William J. Fallon in February 2007. (AP)

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Four-star Admiral William J. Fallon had a brilliant Navy career and a mouth, it was said, that could peel paint off the walls.

He flew fighter missions over Vietnam, rose to head of the Pacific Command, then was named by George W. Bush Combatant Commander of U.S. Central Command — Centcom — the U.S. military’s top commander in the white-hot region from Egypt to Pakistan.

He oversaw the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and abruptly retired after Esquire magazine called him the last man standing between Washington and war with Iran.

This hour, On Point: The admiral who spoke his mind.

You can join the conversation. What’s your question for the fighter-pilot admiral who once ran your country’s wars? What’s your question for William Fallon today on Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Gaza? On “smart power”? On Al Qaeda?

-Tom Ashbrook

Guest:

Adm. William J. (“Fox”) Fallon, retired four-star Navy admiral, Commander of CENTCOM from March 2007 to March 2008, Commander of PACOM (Pacific Command) from Feb 2005 to March 2007, and currently a Robert E. Wilhelm fellow at MIT’s Center for International Studies.

More links:

“The Man Between War and Peace,” the Esquire profile by Thomas P.M. Barnett that caused so much controversy.

Slate’s Fred Kaplan, writing in March 2008,  looked at the context surrounding Fallon’s departure.

Sergeant Michelle Brookfield Wilmot on guard duty in Ramadi, Iraq in April 2005. (Photo by Spc. Miranda Mattingly.)

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In the American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, American women in uniform are everywhere and almost anywhere. In conflicts without clear front-lines, where old distinctions of combat and non-combat troops are hard — impossible — to uphold.

In the air over Tal Afar, in a Kiowa scout helicopter, chasing insurgents down alleyways from the sky with a .50 caliber machine gun and rockets at the ready.

On the ground, gun in hand, guarding convoys, raiding homes, saving soldiers with a medic’s pack, rumbling through the roadside bombs.

And they’re bringing what they see back home, as veterans, with more bloody, in-the-thick-of-it memories than female American vets have ever known.

This hour, On Point: On Veterans Day, American women at war.

You can join the conversation. Female veterans, tell us about your experiences at war. In Iraq. In Afghanistan. Tell us about going, fighting, surviving. Tell us about coming home.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

From Baghdad, we’re joined by Tina Susman, the Baghdad bureau chief for the Los Angeles Times. She’s recently been embedded with U.S. troops.

Joining us from Washington is Ann Scott Tyson, Pentagon and military correspondent for The Washington Post.

From Amherst, Mass., we’re joined by Sergeant Rachel McNeill, Army Reserve. She served in Iraq from December 2004 to December 2005, starting out as a heavy construction equipment operator and shifting to security for convoys out of Ramadi. She’s 24 years old, grew up in Wisconsin, and joined the Army Reserve her senior year of high school, after 9/11, when she was 17.

Also from Amherst, we’re joined by Kirsten Holmstedt, author of “Band of Sisters: American Women at War in Iraq” (2007). She’s at work on a new book about women returning home from war.

And joining us from New York is Meg McLagan, a documentary filmmaker and cultural anthropologist. She’s co-director and co-producer of the new documentary “Lioness,” which documents female soldiers of the Iraq War who took part in the Lioness program, in which women accompanied male teams on raids and house searches. The film will air nationally on the PBS series Independent Lens this Thursday, Nov. 13.

More links:

You can watch the Independent Lens “Lioness” trailer on YouTube, here:

Sergeant First Class Clay Usie (left) in "The Recruiter."

The Iraq war years have often been a brutal challenge in the field, but also at home, where U.S. military recruiters have struggled to fill the ranks when young Americans know that if they sign up they are almost certain to go to war.

In shopping malls and school halls and family kitchens, recruiters go to incredible lengths to meet their quotas for a military gasping for fresh troops.

A new HBO documentary gets inside the lives and hard sell of recruiters and recruits in a small southern town. It is intense in there.

This hour, On Point: Dreams, despair, patriotism and raw battlefront need.

-Tom Ashbrook

* * *

Guests:

Edet Belzberg, documentary filmmaker, she’s the director of HBO’s “The Recruiter.”

Sgt. 1st Class Clay Usie, U.S. Army, former Army recruiter and subject of the documentary.

Cpl. Matthew Marks, U.S. Army, a recruit featured in the film, he’s now an Army recruiter himself.

Memorial Day is a day for remembering and honoring the sacrifices of American military men and women in war. On this Memorial Day, there is no shortage of sacrifice to consider.

In wars since 9/11, thousands have died. More than 400 in Afghanistan. More than 4,080 now in Iraq.

In March this year, when the U.S. military’s death toll in Iraq passed 4,000, we asked guests to try to weigh that sacrifice. On this Memorial Day, we hear again that conversation.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Tom Bowman, Pentagon correspondent for NPR.

Alissa Rubin, Deputy Baghdad Bureau Chief for the New York Times.

Anthony Cordesman, Arleigh A. Burke Chair in Strategy at the Center for Strategic & International Studies.

Rosemary Palmer, mother of Lance Corporal Augie Schraeder who was serving in the Marine reserves when he was killed on August 3rd, 2005 and co-founder of Families of the Fallen for Change.

Ann Scott Tyson, Military and Pentagon correspondent for the Washington Post.

Paul Kane, a Marine reservist, decorated combat veteran of Iraq and Harvard University’s Belfer Center.

For most Americans, the sacrifices made by service men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan are — after all these years — still out of sight and far away.

For colleagues, for comrades in arms, those sacrifices are as close as a man’s last breath. A woman’s last word.

Memorial Day honors sacrifice across many generations. But this Memorial Day weekend, with two grinding conflicts underway and plenty of sacrifice out there, we’ll hear from those who know it firsthand.

This hour, On Point: Soldiers and Marines remember lost comrades in America’s post-9/11 wars.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Maj. Trent Gibson, U.S. Marine Corps Officer Instructor for the Naval ROTC at Virginia Tech University. He was the company commander of Cpl. Jason L. Dunham, 22, of Allegany, NY, who was killed in Karabilah, Iraq on April 14, 2004, when he covered a grenade to save his comrades during a fierce firefight. Dunham was awarded the Medal of Honor.

Sgt. Jack Lewis, US Army veteran, he served in Iraq from September 2004 to July 2005, based in Mosul and Tal Afar. His comrade, Army Staff Sergeant Donald D. Griffith, Jr., 29, of Mechanicsville, Iowa, was killed in an ambush on March 11, 2005, during an operation in Tal Afar.

Sgt. Jason Christopher Hartley, New York Army National Guard, author of “Just Another Soldier: A Year on the Ground in Iraq.” His friend, Army Specialist Segun Frederick Akintade, 34, of Brooklyn, New York, was killed on October 28, 2004, when his unit was attacked on patrol by insurgents in Abd Allah, Iraq.

Sgt. Talya Havice, an active duty Marine and NROTC student at Harvard University, she worked in intelligence in Iraq and Afghanistan. She was in Fallujah on June 23, 2005, when a convoy carrying many of her fellow Marines was ambushed, killing 6 and wounding 13. She is memorializing: Marine Cpl. Ramona M. Valdez, 20, of Bronx, NY. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Regina R. Clark, 43, of Centralia, WA. Marine Lance Cpl. Veashna Muy, of Los Angeles, CA. Marine Lance Cpl. Holly A. Charette, 21, of Cranston, RI. Marine Cpl. Chad W. Powell, 22, of West Monroe, LA. Marine Cpl. Carlos Pineda, 23, of Los Angeles, CA.

Sgt. Charles Pinder, Massachusetts Army National Guard. He was beside Sgt. Michael J. Kelley, 26, of Scituate, MA, when he was hit by shrapnel and killed on June 8, 2005, in Afghanistan.

Dan Murphy, father of Lt. Michael P. Murphy, 29, of the Navy SEALs, who died in Konar Province, Afghanistan on June 28, 2005, and was awarded the Medal of Honor, the only U.S. service member in the Afghanistan conflict to receive that honor.

We look at the meaning and uncertain milestone of 4,000 U.S. troops dead in Iraq.

Guests:

Tom Bowman, Pentagon correspondent for NPR.

Alissa Rubin, Deputy Baghdad Bureau Chief for the New York Times.

Anthony Cordesman, Arleigh A. Burke Chair in Strategy at the Center for Strategic & International Studies.

Rosemary Palmer, mother of Lance Corporal Augie Schraeder who was serving in the Marine reserves when he was killed on August 3rd, 2005 and co-founder of Families of the Fallen for Change.

Ann Scott Tyson, Military and Pentagon correspondent for the Washington Post.

Paul Kane, a Marine reservist, decorated combat veteran of Iraq and Harvard University’s Belfer Center.

Five years ago today, the “shock and awe” bombardment was ending in Baghdad, and U.S. troopers were pouring over the border from Kuwait into Iraq.

They were not told to expect a five-year slog: longer, as Barack Obama now puts it, than World War I, longer than World War II, longer than the Civil War.

In this hour we’ll go to Iraq. To check in on Marines right now, still, in Fallujah. To talk with Iraqis about the realities they face every day in a shattered country. To ask what they, and we, dare hope. And must do.

This hour, On Point: five years on, inside Iraq.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Sudarsan Raghavan, Baghdad bureau chief for The Washington Post.

Jamie Tarabay, national correspondent for NPR, she was Baghdad bureau chief from 2005 until December 2007 and has covered the war since 2003.

Ashraf al-Khalidi, a Baghdad-based researcher, he has worked with several international institutions and writes for the news website IraqSlogger.

Mahmoud Othman, independent Kurdish member of the Iraqi parliament.

Noha Agha, founder and president Nintu, LLC, a humanitarian and cultural assistance group in Iraq.

When the American Air Force takes to the skies and needs fuel, its jets have fueled up, mid-air, forever, from American-made Boeing air tankers. You’ve seen the pictures: The long hose comes down, the jet tops up, and off it goes.

Last week, the gigantic contract to build the next generation of air tankers took off as well. It won’t be a Boeing tanker, but Europe’s Airbus topping up American military planes.

That’s a $40 billion dollar contract — maybe a hundred billion. Gone are jobs, profits, pride. Today we ask why.

This hour, On Point: American tax dollars for Europe’s Airbus for the U.S. military. Why?

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Richard Aboulafia, vice president of analysis at the Teal Group, an aerospace and defense consulting firm in Fairfax, Virginia.

James Wallace, reporter for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer covering the aerospace industry, including Boeing and Airbus.

Rep. Norm Dicks, Democratic congressman from Washington’s 6th District, which includes many Boeing employees. He is a member of the House Appropriations Committee and the Defense Subcommittee.

Rep. Duncan Hunter, Republican congressman from California, ranking member on the House Armed Services Committee, and a candidate for the Republican nomination for president until January.

The United States alone spends more than the rest of the world’s nations combined on defense. And defense spending has surged during the George W. Bush years, to its highest level in real dollars since World War II. Yet there is scarcely a word on the ‘08 campaign trail about military spending.

There’s plenty to talk about. Does war still work? How can we spend so much and have a military that’s called “broken”? Can we afford to keep this up? Can we afford not to?

This hour, On Point: A real issue for ‘08 — the cost of the U.S. military, and where it goes now.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Lawrence Korb, former assistant secretary of defense under President Ronald Reagan, currently a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and a senior advisor to the Center for Defense Information, in Washington, DC.

Daniel Goure, vice president of the Lexington Institute, a public-policy research organization based in Arlington, Virginia, and former director of the Defense Department’s Office of Strategic Competitiveness in the George H.W. Bush administration.

A year ago, without warning, China shot one of its own satellites out of the sky. The U.S. protested loudly. But what a difference a year makes. The U.S. Navy is preparing to take out one of our own ailing spy satellites with a ship-launched missile — perhaps tonight.

The bus-sized satellite carries half a ton of toxic fuel — a potential disaster if it crashes to earth in a populated area. But some critics think this isn’t about public safety. It’s about testing America’s missile defenses and extending military power into space.

This hour, On Point: shooting down a satellite, and fears of an arms race in space.

-Jane Clayson

Guests:

Joan Johnson-Freese, chair of national security studies at the U.S. Naval War College and author of “Space as a Strategic Asset.”

Peter Brookes, senior fellow for national security affairs at the Asian Studies Center, he served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific affairs in the George W. Bush administration.

Geoff Forden, research scientist at MIT’s Program on Science, Technology and Society.

Noah Shachtman, contributing editor to Wired magazine.

In the glare of presidential campaign lights and stock market bonfires, it’s almost possible for the war in Iraq to disappear.

But not if you’re a soldier, or an Iraqi, or cutting the checks in Washington, or feeling the strain at the Pentagon.

Iraq’s Defense Minister says U.S. troops will be needed for another decade. John McCain says a hundred years if necessary. Top generals are wrangling over what to do this year.

This hour, On Point: we’re circling back to Iraq and asking how long until how many U.S. troops come home.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Lawrence Wilkerson, retired U.S. Army colonel, former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, now professor of national security studies at William & Mary College.

Michael O’Hanlon, senior fellow in foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution.

Capt. Seth Moulton, U.S. Marines, special assistant to General David Petraeus. He is serving his fourth tour in Iraq.

Ned Parker, correspondent for the Los Angeles Times.

For too many of us, it’s the forgotten war. High up along the rocky ridges of eastern Afghanistan, American soldiers are fighting a grueling fight against the Taliban and Al Qaeda. And they’re doing it the old-fashioned way: up close and personal.

In the Korengal Valley, one of the most dangerous places in the world for U.S. troops, the combat is non-stop and stripped down: a gun on the shoulder, feet on the ground.

Writer Sebastian Junger and filmmaker and photographer Tim Hetherington have been embedded with the 503rd Infantry.

This hour, On Point: in the valley of death with Second Platoon.

-Jacki Lyden

Guests:

Sebastian Junger, correspondent for Vanity Fair. His article, “Into the Valley of Death” appears in the January 2008 issue.

Tim Hetherington, filmmaker and photojournalist. His photographs accompany Junger’s article “Into the Valley of Death.”

It feels like we’ve seen this before: US troops make progress in Iraq, while Iraq’s political and ethnic divide appears as vast as ever.

And yet something real has happened on the ground: the terrible bloodletting brought on by the fall of Saddam has ebbed. Neighborhoods are quieter. And as promised, the first drawdown of US troops has begun.

The “surge” gets part of the credit. But this isn’t peace yet, the generals warn. Iraq’s civil war still simmers beneath the surface, and what happens when the Americans ease their grip on the streets is anyone’s guess.

This hour, On Point: The surge, and the day after the surge.

-Jane Clayson

Guests:

Damien Cave, Baghdad correspondent for The New York Times.

Conrad Crane, director of the U. S. Army Military History Institute at the U.S. Army War College.

Paul Hughes, retired U.S. Army colonel, now senior program officer at the United States Institute of Peace.

After World War II, some 8 million veterans came home and went to college on the GI Bill, helping create the American middle class. Now, the latest generation of vets — battle-tried in Iraq and Afghanistan — is coming home, and many are going to college.

They’ve got less help from Uncle Sam, but they are hitting campuses across the country, confronting term papers, parties, campus politics, and culture shock.

This hour, On Point: we hear from three Iraq vets, now all undergrads, about reentering civilian life on campus.

-Sheilah Kast

Guests:

Matt Stiner, a Marine Corps veteran who served in Iraq. He’s now a senior at Oklahoma State University at Tulsa.

Talya Havice, an active duty Marine who served in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Far East. She is now a sophomore at Harvard University.

David Hassan, a Marine Corps veteran who served in Iraq. He is now in his first year at the University of California, Santa Barbara.