Obama's War (full documentary) | FRONTLINE

[Music] afghanistan pakistan president obama has called it a necessary war i forgot it is ambitious but it's also important but now as the situation deteriorates the debate has just begun you don't have to occupy the country in order to fix the larger problem who told you the taliban was going to shoot you if you go to the market what is really happening on the ground can america win we can do everything right in afghanistan and still lose this war tonight on frontline what's the mission today correspondent martin smith reports from the battlefields of obama's war make no mistake we're experts in the application of violence we are attacking to seize control of the population from the taliban the people are our objective our predecessors are watching us the world will remember what you do here this summer 40 or 50 years from now when you're sitting around with your grandchildren they're going to ask you what you did in the summer of decision in afghanistan i picked you specifically to be the company that goes the furthest south and remember your measure is not found in how much time you have on this earth but what you do with the time that you have echo company is going to change history starting early tomorrow morning [Music] [Music] wait wait wait wait wait wait are you okay eleanor on july 2nd 2009 hey keep moving keep moving we can't we can't stop let's go keep going keep going keep going four thousand marines landed in the southern afghanistan province of helmand freelance photojournalist dan fung dennis was embedded with echo company of the 2nd battalion 8th marines for 3 weeks he filmed these scenes the fighting was often heavy there wasn't much cover and the area was mined with ieds what the was that the idea i told you guys through that class right here what the [Music] stuck it down hey where's it coming from the gap in the trees to the right of the compound yeah and they're on the left side the marine's objective was to seize a key canal crossing and to drive the taliban from a village market don't shoot me huh same spot on the first day while they were trying to hold their ground i need a marine was shot in the neck by the taliban george buddy come on sure come on come on [Music] 20 year old lance corporal charles seth sharp of adairsville georgia had just mailed the letter home saying he was going to be fighting a battle that his grandchildren would someday study in school grab one come on let's go watch that god damn it let's go let's go corporal sharp didn't make it [Music] heavy fighting has been going on for months now across helmand [Music] earlier this year the president gave a stark assessment of the war the situation is increasingly perilous [Music] many people in the united states have a simple question what is our purpose in afghanistan why do our men and women still fight and die there they deserve a straightforward answer three weeks after the marines landed in helmand we went down to link up with echo company just yesterday a humvee scouting this road hit an ied two more marines were killed two badly wounded then word came that another ied had disabled one of our lead vehicles our convoy was halted for 12 hours chicken salsa vegetable manicotti [Applause] the taliban considers southern afghanistan their heartland in eight years of war the coalition has never held this territory commander of the international security assistance force is general stanley mcchrystal you've cleared helmand three times yeah never hold it yeah and once you clear something and don't hold it you probably didn't really clear it it has no staying power in fact i would argue that it's worse because you create an expectation and then you dash it and so i think that you're almost better to have not gone there at all echo company has now set up camp in an old school house they took from the taliban they've named it combat outpost sharp after their fallen brother the first marine to die here there's still taliban graffiti on the walls [Applause] conditions are tough there are no cots and daytime temperatures can reach 135 degrees but unlike previous missions the marines plan to stay echo main echo 6. okay find out where it's going and keep us fed all right let's go but their primary mission is not to hunt and kill the taliban it is instead to protect the people it's why they picked this spot you moved into this old school that was a taliban stronghold and it's right next to the market of myan post day what's the thinking behind that of being right here next to the market right next to the market will help us to connect with the people a little bit more so uh over time we can start developing that relationship with them as somewhat of a population center so you got you have to be you have to be with the population and close to them so that you can you can work with them it's all part of a revised military strategy to focus on separating the people from the taliban it's easier said than done since the marines arrived in miami the people have fled [Music] they're not coming to your market that's right that's right where are they going there's a couple other markets further to the south um that's where they're going right now connecting with the people sounded a lot easier back in washington the central goal of counterinsurgency is to make the population feel secure enough to engage in peaceful politics a few weeks before heading out to afghanistan i attended a major security conference in washington in all counter insurgency and practice that i'm a trillion dollars in this global counter-insurgency campaign and endure invest and endure a long-term commitment to the region to some of the counter-insurgency brain trusts best and brightest strategists were there that conceivably john nagle who helped write the military's new counter-insurgency manual preventing the re-emergence of a strong al-qaeda associated presence andrew exum a former army ranger who writes an influential counter-insurgency blog we have a concerted effort to protect the population above all other considerations and the architect the overriding mission of counterinsurgency has to be to secure the people general david petraeus what we are doing is what we call full spectrum operations petraeus explained that he means not just troops living among the people progress has continued in afghanistan but a complex array of goals improving governance fighting corruption building infrastructure the only way to do this is to apply all of these tools to it but at the end of the day it's all about these folks right here counter insurgency revitalized by petraeus and his advisors has been policy in afghanistan for six months now embraced back in march by president obama when he sent the marines into hellmann hello how are you where are you going with your cows this is what they've been asked to do lots of foot patrols we're in the process spending more time on the ground getting out of our large vehicles and and out from behind our sunglasses and and all this all this gear that we wear and literally just getting out among the population sun god good morning how are you good so they see us as human beings when we treat them as such rather than looking like something out of star wars to them it helps humanize the troops but it does mean assuming more risk when you're out on patrol one minute you're walking in a plowed field that's dry and then you cross the irrigation ditch and then you go wading knee deep across the field that's just been flooded to grow the crops you run the risk of mines and explosives on the roads you also run that risk in the fields as well so you just have to play which one makes sense at the time [Applause] damn got the little ones to work how things been going shiny not stuff there's nothing there's no problem sir none at all the marines hope to convince villagers to return to the market next to the base what's been going on with them loud noises from the north and to gather information about the taliban i'm talking to one of those guys we talked to at the mosque the one who was smiling that time but he was saying everything you wouldn't say when you smile talking to that guy right now he's building that house but the people remain wary it is frustrating because the few people that are here are still scared and they're still a little timid about coming out and working with us spread the word tell your friends who live in other places tell the taliban to stay away if you're an afghan and an american commander is asking you have you seen any taliban who's coming here you know for sure that whatever you say to this american commander an official will be will be knowledge to a taliban commander don't let this live a up what's this right they've messaged the population before leaving they've said yep look the americans are coming in they were going to ask you to work with him if you work with him we're going to come back and we're going to kill you tell these gentlemen not to be rude or just come to search them but uh when they see when they see forces like us don't run and don't start stuffing stuff in your pockets that looks suspicious americans have brought grand ambitions to hellmann once before in the 50s and 60s helmand was the site of one of the largest foreign aid projects ever undertaken in the developing world the same engineers who built the hoover dam constructed these canals and installed a major dam upstream to control periodic flooding the area developed into afghanistan's breadbasket but despite the good intentions helmut also became the world's largest heroin poppy supplier it's the head of the poppy and they score it right before they harvest it put those little score marks in it and the plus loses out overnight and uh you come back i don't know if it's the next day or a couple days later the plus is all dried up like a sap and that's when they scrape off and they use that as the uh the base for their opium production so as you can see it's everywhere you've got drug dealers you've got criminals obviously you've got extremists all of whom are surviving off this poppy production and and in fact both paying and intimidating the farmers last year the taliban derived about a hundred million dollars from the opium trade opium and marijuana money also corrupts officials and undermines the people's support for government but for now the marines turn a blind eye it's a matter of priorities drugs happens to be something that produces a lot of money but my mission coming down here was not specifically against drugs like i was asked point blank by uh by some of the locals uh that are farmers hey what are you gonna do about my drugs because that's the way i make my money that's where i make a living that's where i feed my family what are you going to do about it the marines go on about their business how many people live here 14 people live here no four or three four forty four zero four zero forty this house that house right here and these ones right here all these people up there always should have it before that was that way hey sir we gotta get on the backside skirmishes like this happen almost daily typically the taliban fire small arms from a distance hey make sure we're watching this back side here somebody get our backside they are rarely seen that had a machine gun position in that tree line looks like he's got a black turban on sir we're fighting an insurgent enemy who refuses to face us in frontal battle but instead fights with ambushes with snipers with improvised explosive devices that leave the counter insurgent leave the american soldier the afghan soldier with no enemy to hit it nobody to target he said one finger right on the left hay bale yeah the left hay bale you come about one finger to the right and you go straight back and he's hanging out right there in between the trees there are definitely guys in that tree line there are definitely guys deep out there their goal is to attack us and keep us from the people and try to show the people that we can't keep them safe and that we're exchanging firefights and all that there are still guys milling about in that tree line we were taking fire from how copy it is their way of distracting me from doing what i'm here to do [Applause] all the shooting makes it harder for the marines and the people to trust one another all right well i know there's no problems but you're still going to see the marines around here like every day every other day and with a translator who doesn't speak the local dialect or english very well say that over again the simplest communication seems impossible haven't gone where during fighting haven't gone where during the fighting they haven't gone to sir gone where you're not telling me where where have they gone they haven't gone to from here they haven't gone from where gone where from here where frustration steadily grows so now it's over there they just said it was over there the marines are here to try to find out why some locals have moved out of their homes why are people afraid to come back to their house okay well now they can come back they know that right people can start coming back we want people to come back to their homes and start farming again hey has anybody shopped at the market lately they're going to like already why are you going to lockery the market right here is open it's all also a taliban if you go to basel we will kill all of you so you're told the taliban's gonna shoot you if you go to the market who told you the taliban was gonna shoot you if you go to the market how well do you think your marines understand counter insurgency doctrine they understand how important it is to win the population they understand that it's sometimes difficult with marines to rein them back i'm going to ask this question for the fifth time hey ask him to stop ask him to stop this question what i try to tell the marines all the time is the the the guy that you are nice to today is going to be the guy that doesn't shoot at you or another marine two rotations from now that comes back they didn't answer my question listen to me for a second listen to me right now all right you all are not cooperating this is a war about personal relationships it has to be a cultural shift in how we think about what we're doing this is how we will win this war this is how we will succeed i need you all to answer my questions if not then i'm going to believe right now that the taliban does come here they talk to you you talk to them and you're still on their side all right you need to understand that we are here to keep the taliban out [Music] of the pool we can't go through all this open field they'll see us from a click away the next day a squad pushes out to find the taliban what's the mission today mission today uh is a couple things now we're trying to get eyes on a river crossing that we think the taliban are using the other part is trying to see how aggressive they're going to be trying to bait them a little bit and do uh being overly aggressive and see if we can catch them in a trap do you expect them to attack you today i do roger we still have uh about 200 meters till we reach that first compound roger we got contact already i need you to move now move now well before we expect it the taliban opened fire [Applause] it's coming from the same position that two charlie got hit at yesterday we are pinned down in a spot with little cover hey use talking guns with that saw to save your ammo we need to push forward up and over a small rise down into an area with better protection once in place the marines open up it's all guy get up where right in front of me right in front of you all right [Applause] [Music] after 30 minutes the battle dies down go ahead five hey be advised that some icon chatter about a uh possible weapons cash being on the back of a uh a donkey car this is what they they described it as brick they may shoot from over here so you might want to i'm getting stuck with the damage try to watch out for this area uh it sort of worked we definitely scared them but i think they knew that other squad was out there i think they're conducting we call it delaying action just trying to keep us in place while they can move away the marines have been holding ground here since early july but they don't have enough manpower to expand their area of operations an unknown number of taliban remain in place nearby [Music] if the front lines of counter insurgency are in helmand an even more difficult front is here in kabul afghanistan's capital it's the political side of counterinsurgency there is a view that the governance threat or the lack of governance is every bit the threat that the taliban are and we've and we've got to essentially address that just as effectively as we do the security they deserve a chance at a future they need some help right now they need security governance and development governance is by far the most important to work the political front president obama has beefed up kabul's diplomatic staff and appointed a special representative richard holbrook greatest friend of the united states mission here in afghanistan ambassador richard holbrook holbrook is regarded as a kind of foreign policy superstar he is here to address political and regional issues but we have to remember why we're here we're here to help the afghan people stand up on their own feet we inherited a very difficult situation in afghanistan it would take a long time to catalog the things that we felt were done wrong the government was weak and corruption was riff and we set out to try to take all these issues on at once it's a very daunting job is what we're doing here at a nation building it's nation rebuilding there is a nation in afghanistan and until it was wrecked by the soviet invasion in 1978 it was a poor but proud and functioning country this is not nation building but whatever you call it the project is in trouble the government of president hamid karzai in office for almost eight years has never been willing or able to take on entrenched corruption i had hoped that president karzai would embrace the idea of a more accountable and just government instead what he has done is in fact rehabilitated some of the worst actors that have given the worst reputation to the afghan government just consider karzai's running mates on the right is kareem halili once a leader of a militia with a reputation for brutality and torture on the left is warlord muhammad fahim while never convicted he is widely reputed to be involved in heroin trafficking in afghanistan corruption is the rule not the exception well it's an enormous challenge you have it at the petty local level where a policeman will not carry out his duties without being paid by whoever it is he's confronting you have local ministries where the bureaucrats starved for salaries exact fees from citizens to perform services that they should perform for free you have regional corruption where governors at least poor governors take resources intended for the benefit of the population and direct them to their cronies or to their own bank accounts you have corruption at basically every level of the political economy what progress has been made in terms of combating corruption in afghanistan in this year i don't i think we have been able to begin to get some arrests some prosecutions but we've just begun to scratch the surface this is tough stuff as you know i feel that at least we are focused on the issues but across the country corruption has consequences if the government's not providing electricity if the government's not providing justice if there is no investment in roads and infrastructure if the population gets fed up with arbitrary rule they get fed up with corruption then they turn to the taliban because the taliban promised them some kind of rudimentary brutal order according to u.s intelligence sources 70 percent of afghanistan lies outside government control in most areas the taliban offers their own shadow government with their own administrators and courts they are dispensing justice at the local level and this is what a lot of people want in the countryside they want law and order that's how the taliban came into power the first time they have developed a very sophisticated tribal engagement policy the u.s and afghans really have developed nothing this spring the taliban's chief commander mullah muhammad omar even issued a 30-page booklet on how to engage the population keep good relations with the local people it says our mission is to keep people safe in southern afghanistan the taliban now has ombudsmen so they send people out into southern afghanistan and they say how are we doing what do you think of your local shadow governor is he just is he doing a good job they ask questions like this you know what it is it's a direct challenge to the way that nato isaf and the government of afghanistan have been doing business for the past eight years to counter the taliban's gains in the provinces the coalition has made fighting local afghan corruption a military priority i understand that to say we're going after corruption in some comprehensive way is a tall order but corruption at a local level is a military necessity you can't hold the ground and build if you haven't at a local level dealt with this on this day the military was taking several high-ranking ministers from president karzai's administration to kuner province in northeastern afghanistan part of an ambitious project to stand up local government institutions the us has spent a lot of time trying to build a strong central government in afghanistan that is completely a historical in afghanistan where the u.s has not adopted a systematic strategy is dealing with local tribal institutions where a lot of power resides if all politics is local well that is truly the case in afghanistan so instead of bringing the provinces to kabul the military is bringing kabul to the provinces this is about connecting the government to the people and that's what they're going to see today you've got the minister of finance you've got the minister of customs you've got the minister of agriculture you've got all the key stakeholders it's very important that the provincial leadership and the locals here understand that they have a national government that is here to listen and here to solve problems the people of kunar have survived for many decades smuggling timber and gems into pakistan from the nearby mountains they are deeply distrustful of kabul many tribesmen share their profits with criminal gangs the taliban even al-qaeda the military is trying to break their habits under the protection of an early warning blimp general bill mayville toured a small tea farm this is the best area for tea the idea is to get locals excited about alternatives to timber smuggling next was a trout farm maybe this is a frog or chinese food and finally an afternoon of speeches in all due respect it seems enormously ambitious to look at a society and believe that you can change all its dynamics and that you as a military organization are charged with that entire task it is ambitious but it's also important and it's one step at a time it's a big job and it's enormously complex and there will be as many frustrations as there are times when you think you got it right but i think there's no alternative [Applause] we have a strong interest in a stable afghanistan but i'm not sure that the only way to conduct that mission is through large-scale nation-building efforts in afghanistan the problem is it's terribly vague about what exactly it is that you're required to build and to what point and how do i know when i'm done until you have specified what the end state you're aiming for is then counterinsurgency is a recipe for presence in perpetuity hey 3-6 this is sick we'll be ready to go in a second the nation-building project it seems to me tends to assume that that political culture can be changed i think it's spectacularly i guess the piece that bothers me is that as a people having accepted the proposition of open-ended war i mean the so-called long war now eight years old has become the longest war in our history and there's no end inside how does this end and how long is it going to take we're going to leave here under shades of gray we'll have stability this reasonable stability will have a firm understanding that more has to be done but in the end you'll have an afghan solution to an afghan problem and that'll be good enough [Music] afghanistan is an incredibly difficult situation but you have to take a deep breath when you look to the east where the taliban has its sanctuary and where al qaeda is headquartered pakistan [Music] [Applause] peshawar is the gateway to the lawless tribal areas that border afghanistan anti-american sentiment runs high here throughout the summer fundamentalist religious parties turned out to protest against u.s and nato troops in the region the ruthless leader of the pakistani taliban by thule massoud had just been killed by an american drone [Music] in the face of these protests even the pakistani government feels compelled to condemn the killing of massoud these attacks have been coming against our wish whether we like or we don't like they are continuing you're saying that this was not approved or it was not approved the position of the government of pakistan remains there no drones do you support or protest the attack that killed by tulamasu the government and the military stance is very clear on this we consider it that it does more harm than it helps and therefore it is seen by the people as a breach of sovereignty the u.s partnership with the pakistanis is troubled but american hands are tied we are not in pakistan in the way that we're in afghanistan we don't have an international security assistance force helping the pakistanis we don't have an american general and an american army operating in pakistan we're basically working with a partner in pakistan who doesn't want us to be there but over the last two years the pakistanis have faced a serious taliban problem of their own hundreds of soldiers and civilians have been killed in scores of taliban bombings and assassinations but when the taliban took over the swat valley just a few hours drive from the capital the americans leaned on the government there was an extraordinary effort made by everyone from the president through the secretary of state secretary of defense ambassador holbrook all leaned in hard to convince pakistan that it could not yield to the taliban that it had to fight for control of its territory the pakistanis responded with what one officer described to me as an iron fist the u.s military was encouraged i think they've got a serious insurgency inside pakistan they've taken very energetic and aggressive action against it i think they found it difficult but i think they've also found the resolve internally to deal with it but it's not clear if the pakistanis can or will carry the fight forward the pakistanis i believe now share our interest in going after some of the insurgent groups that are bent on destabilizing pakistan but they do not share our interests as of yet in taking an aggressive stance against the groups that are seeking to destabilize afghanistan american commanders point to two taliban groups in particular both with ties to al qaeda they are led by jalaladin haqqani and his son saraj in north waziristan and mullah omar in quetta over the years both groups have received substantial financial and logistical support from the pakistani intelligence service the isi which has historically seen the taliban as an asset a proxy force for protecting pakistani interests inside afghanistan there are elements within the pakistani national security establishment that have traditionally regarded extremists like the taliban as a tool of international relations and they can't quite bring themselves to let go of using those guys as a tool of foreign policy the headquarters of the enemy is still in pakistan it's bad have you gone to the isi and asked for meetings with mullah omar or jalaladin haqqani yes and the isi tells you no you dislike pakistan no you sound as if you dislike pakistan sure because they are causing a lot of trouble for this country [Music] on the key issue of pakistan dropping its affiliations with those that they have considered over time as their assets people like the haqqanis or omar and the quad ashura is there any evidence that they're going to go after those people martin still today they remain extraordinarily dangerous threats to u.s nato and afghan forces who are fighting in southern and southeastern afghanistan and what are the pakistanis doing that gives you any confidence that they're changing their approach there martin i'd refer you to the pakistani government is the pakistani government interested in going after the haqqani network well i categorize there is no any such operation of haqqani group in pakistan yes when we talk about the government there were allegations i'll clarify you sir and we were reported that they have some dents some of the points where they are operating and mulaying and we stock against them the americans and the afghans they say that you know where haqqani is and that you know where mala omar is and that you could if you chose to go after them no that's not correct there is no uh truth in the mullah umar and remaining in pakistan side of the border why do they say that they operate from here if that's not the case are they lying who's who's lying who said that stanley mcchrystal other generals in the eastern part of afghanistan u.s generals i'm ruling saleh the head of intelligence they have their basis general flynn who's head of the army in time i refute that no one has shown any intelligence to the pakistani last year admiral mullen and a senior cia official traveled to islamabad with evidence that the isi was continuing to support the taliban in this case intercepted communications between isi officers and militants we laid out some very specific areas that we thought needed to be addressed to both the military the intelligence and the political leadership we had a series of meetings you laid out the isis involvement with the militants that were based inside pakistan we spoke to clearly the isis relationship with various militant groups that they've had for some time how do i understand this the defense intelligence agency the cia u.s military and afghan intelligence all points to isi and pakistani cooperation and support for segments of the taliban i think i think it's outdated intelligence they must be talking of the past we are cooperating we will continue to cooperate because we believe safe afghanistan is safe pakistan you've been frustrated in the past during the bush administration with how soft the policy was on pakistan right you think that there's a major change in the approach to pakistan under this administration no no no in other words you're still frustrated that the administration is soft on pakistan here is the fundamental problem they say pakistan is not a helpful country let us help them to become helpful i disagree with that principle so how would you do it let's put pressure on them to help what kind of pressure you cannot in incentivize bad behavior or else this is going to be a vicious circle for years the pakistanis have struck peace deals with the taliban in the tribal areas the latest was signed in february 2008 with the tribes of north waziristan in what is jalaluddin haqqani's stronghold getting results from the pakistanis is the responsibility of u.s special representative richard holden is pakistan on board with going after haqqani yes what evidence is there of that just let me leave it at that we know that they've gone after those who are threatening their state but yet there doesn't seem to be convincing evidence that they're willing to go after the haqqani network or mullah omar and the kwadashira they are quite clear in their own minds that haqqani poses a threat to both afghanistan and pakistan privately several administration officials told frontline they worried about the duplicity of pakistani officials and how to develop a clear policy towards pakistan we're not really sure what to do i think the outlines of the new administration's pakistan policy are a lot harder to discern than the afghan policy there hasn't been an equivalent to the new strategy on the ground that general mcchrystal is advocating i'm confident that we're going to start to see that over time but i just don't think we've seen it yet [Applause] this could not be a more complicated war if you think about it the united states is essentially waging a war against its own ally the taliban are a proxy of the government of pakistan we're an ally of the government of pakistan we're fighting the taliban in the end the taliban will be defeated strategically when the government of pakistan makes a strategic decision that its future does not lie in partnership with islamic extremists the united states continues to pour money into pakistan two to three billion dollars in military assistance and 7.5 billion dollars in civilian aid over the next five years does it give you pause to hand them billions of dollars i absolutely have to hold my nose when i work with the pakistani government but i don't have a better alternative than continuing to work with this pakistani government and continuing to nudge it forward toward taking more effective action against the taliban [Music] on august 20th afghans went to the polls to choose a new president the obama administration had high hopes that whoever the winner the election would validate the afghan government dr abdullah abdullah president karzai's main challenger ran on an anti-corruption platform afghanistan but the election results were tainted by clear evidence of fraud it was a disaster for the american project the united states is investing blood and treasure to support the government of afghanistan and if that government engaged in fraud in order to perpetuate itself in power cause and cause into question the very basis of these american investments and sacrifices i think it's appalling the un has overseen a recount at a time when afghanistan most needs a government the nation is paralyzed we have to have an afghan government that is functioning in kabul but if the taliban have strategic depth in pakistan they can continue to threaten afghanistan and if they threaten afghanistan then terrorism of one form or another will be back so what does america do now are more troops the answer or should the focus shift eastward to the tribal areas of pakistan there seems to be some presumption that afghanistan is jihad central that if we can simply succeed in pacifying afghanistan that the problem of violent islamic radicalism goes away it won't all we care about is that al-qaeda not used the place as a sanctuary and you don't have to occupy the country in order to prevent that from happening proponents of a counter-insurgency war on the other hand argue for a much larger deployment by classic counter-insurgency measures success in afghanistan would require 600 000 counter insurgents we're well below half that right now are you saying there have to be more american troops on the ground initially there need to be more american troops on the ground the long-term answer and our exit strategy is more afghan troops on the ground in late august general mcchrystal submitted a grim assessment to president obama warning that america is in danger of losing the war if more troops are not sent he requested as many as 40 000. they ran somewhere in between you and me president obama put the troop request on hold his administration is split over the way forward all right just about three minutes ago i heard a boat taking off it sounded like across the river so they may have gotten away if that's what they're using mcchrystal says he welcomes the debate any war or conflict you enter where you are likely to lose more americans is something worthy of very detailed debate i know before an american soldier is put in harm's way i hope that not just the political leadership but the american people give it a lot of thought great god in heaven dear jesus we pray for our leadership from every corporal all the way up through the president that you'll allow them to make wise decisions and have wise discernment on what to do at each turn we pray for those families if we do indeed have a full court press application of counter insurgency in afghanistan certainly more american soldiers are going to die and i think it's very very important to be absolutely certain that there that no alternative exists and i think the people who insist that it has to be done through counter insurgency have not seriously examined all the alternatives the president has said correctly in my eyes that this is a necessary war what we learned on september 11th was that vipers can grow in ungoverned spaces and that in a globalized world they can harm us this is a war that america needs to win but there are no guarantees here radio check there you go sir good yeah yep we're good from me and posted hellman echo company reports that they are making some headway they've taken more ground and are slowly building relationships with the local villagers but people have not yet returned to the market next door attacks come regularly and there have been more casualties the taliban still hold 100 miles of territory between the border with pakistan and combat outposts sharp [Music] next time on frontline long before the economic meltdown the market was doing great and the country seemed to be doing great one woman sounded an alarm she could see the crises coming down the road that made her the enemy of a very very large number of people who knew and who ignored they were all part of a very concerted effort to shut her up and to shut her down the warning what frontline front lines obama's war is available on dvd to order visit shoppbs.org or call 1-800 play pbs frontline is made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you thank you with major funding from the john d and catherine t macarthur foundation committed to building a more just verdant and peaceful world with additional funding from the park foundation [Music]

Channel: FRONTLINE PBS | Official

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Length: 54min 40sec (3280 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 18 2021