>> 1% of americans are serving in these wars, but 100% of americans need to reach out and support them. >> then "a rope and a prayer." journalists on the front lines of the afghan war. reporter david rohde held captive by the taliban for seven months while here at home, his wife, photo editor, kristen mulvihill, waged a stealthy struggle for his freedom. an incredible look inside a shared ordeal. and an inspiring tale of hope in the most intractable of wars. >> i know that she wouldn't have wanted us to lose our humanity and act in an uncivilized way. >> "nightline's" terry moran has the story of an israeli and a palestinian who share deep loss and also share the will to bridge the gap. hello again. in this season of giving, some of those who've given the most fighting for their country have come upon hard times returning to the home of the brave for thousands of military vets has meant returning to no home at all and many of them, many of those who fought america's wars in iraq and afghanistan are finding their transition to civilian life overwhelming, sometimes complicated by posttraumatic stress disorder, substance abuse, unemployment and difficulty adjusting to ordinary life after the extreme environment of combat. thousands of veterans have been left homeless. abc's bob woodruff takes a special look at the plight of these warriors without a home. >> we're through. >> reporter: it has been over nine years since the u.s. has been at war in afghanistan and iraq. over 2 million u.s. service members have deployed, many returning to the front lines more than once. and since that initial shock and awe campaign, the va estimates that over 9,000 of these men and women have been homeless. do you think americans are shocked at how many veterans are now homeless from iraq and afghanistan? >> i think they should be. the idea that some man or woman who got home from iraq or afghanistan maybe just a couple of months ago is homeless, that should outrage i think everybody in america. >> reporter: it is hard to see them but they are there. was it ever this cold when you were sleeping here on the bench? >> no, because last winter wasn't that cold. >> reporter: jose pagon is a decorated veteran who survived two tours of duty in iraq as a road clearance specialist. just three days after leaving the military he was homeless living on the streets of the bronx. how long was this your home? >> for around a month and a half. two months. >> reporter: a month and a half on the benches. >> yes, yes, yes. >> reporter: tell me how you laid down here. show me. >> well, i mean with a duffel bag. a duffel bag takes around that much space, you know, then you have another duffel bag here. i don't really know how to -- so this is a duffel bag space then have another duffel bag here laying, so it's pretty much like that. it was embarrassing, pretty embarrassing especially as a veteran. honor, pride, duty, loyalty, all these things, you know, that kick in as a soldier, you know, and then to find yourself here, you know, come on. >> reporter: something you never imagined. >> never. i was a trained soldier readily available at any time and basic training we say, you eat now and taste later, so in iraq we say you fight now and you cry later so -- >> reporter: what about here? >> here everything is backwards. you just always are constantly crying. >> reporter: he's not alone. the va believes there could be thousands more homeless vets in part because of combat stress, traumatic brain injury, sexual trauma, divorce or a rising use of drugs and alcohol. >> people are very proud when they come back. they may not want to admit they need some help. >> reporter: in new york city the va has partnered with the department of homeless services to help identify and house veterans in need to avoid making the same mistakes that were made after the vietnam war. >> the vietnam era veterans were never properly re-established in their communities when they returned. the country has learned a lot. the city has learned a lot, that you got to get it right at the beginning, and if you do that, it'll have lasting effects. >> reporter: but some say changes are not being made fast enough. >> let's go. >> reporter: troops are being called upon to serve over and over. approximately 900,000 service members have been sent into harm's way more than once. women included, in fact, women are becoming homeless faster than men. >> women are becoming homeless at twice the rate of men. they make up about 15% of the fighting force and that's something the va wasn't prepared for, nonprofits weren't prepared for. shelters weren't prepared for and that's why we're seeing them end up homeless at such a higher rate. >> reporter: sergeant katara henry is one of those women. a chemical weapons specialist with the 101st airborne, she served two deployments to iraq. her second tour came only four months after her son was born. while in iraq her husband filed for divorce and was granted custody of their two kids. >> whenever i thought about corps and everything else, i said, you know what, i got to get a lawyer, so i was trying to deal with those things while in iraq. so that's where my money was going. >> reporter: when she came back to the u.s., she slept on friends' couches and even in a car on the street. today she's at the borden avenue veterans residence in queens with 26 other veterans from iraq and afghanistan. >> this is my living room, you know, a cubicle. this is where my clothes are. the love of my life, these are my children. these are my inspiration. >> reporter: what do your kids think about you being homeless? >> i don't tell my children that i'm homeless because i don't really think that they will understand that. when i have them, i take them to beautiful hotels. the hardest thing for me was my son asked me, mommy, why do we keep moving? he thinks that every time i take him to a hotel that we're moving to another place and that hurt me to my soul. >> reporter: you've never shown them this place at all? >> this is -- they cannot come here. >> reporter: while the federal government is trying to improve the system, nonprofit organizations are trying to fill the gaps. here in new york, for example, the jericho project is working on the housing shortage helping vets get the benefits they're entitled to and most important of all helping them find a place to call home. >> yeah, this was a vacant lot before we started and it's going to be all state-of-the-art construction so -- >> reporter: this will be done by spring? >> yeah, we're looking at february, march to move in our first veterans. >> reporter: jericho is currently constructing two veterans' residences that will offer permanent housing to vets from iraq and afghanistan. >> we've seen people with less than a year of being discharged from the military were showing up in the homeless shelter. you know, that's why jericho is building these now because people are already coming back. >> reporter: the current economy has only made things worse especially for young veterans. their unemployment rate is 20%. that's about double the national average. michael monroe is one of those vets. he was a combat medic in iraq and now he can't even find a job. if you had a message for americans watching this, what would be your message to them? >> just -- once we get home, don't forget us. >> reporter: but for sergeant henry, things are looking up. >> we're not only trying to help her find permanent housing we're also trying to house her temporarily before christmas so that her children can spend christmas with her. >> yes, i'm so excited. i'm trying not to cry. >> reporter: the new home. huh? specialist pagon is also one of the lucky ones. jericho helped him too. >> everything changed. i have an apartment and it was the first time, the first time especially as a grown man that i've gotten a gift like this. >> and bob woodruff joins me now. bob, thank you so much. that's very, very powerful. some good news at the end but so many thousands of veterans homeless. why is it that iraq and afghanistan returning vets are becoming homeless faster than they did when they came back from vietnam? >> well, you can see in vietnam it was -- they're going back to a civilian world that existed. so many came back. you know, you look at the number, about 11% of americans served in vietnam, now it's only about 1% so when they come back they're largely alone. they don't have any information about how they can get so much help so they end up really temporarily as homeless as opposed to vietnam which is after five to ten years it became permanent because the way they were treated when they came back. they were spat upon and they didn't have any help at all. >> but they're not finding that now, right? they're not finding that they're ostracized? >> they're not ostracized. it's exactly that. once they find out what they can do, that they can did it, that's the one they can say. it's not that they can't get help. it's just they don't know about it. the ones coming out of the war, the numbers of homeless, the va says 107,000 veterans are homeless every day now from all the war, not iraq and afghanistan. >> some 9,000 or so from iraq and afghanistan? >> that's what they say, yep. >> now, another issue that you're obviously intimately familiar with because you suffered traumatic injury from an ied in iraq is the catastrophic injuries that many of these vets are coming back with. at the water reid hospital you spoke to an army corporal about the situation and about her possible recovery. let's play what you said to her and what she said to you. >> how long do you think this recovery is going to take? >> maybe a lifetime for the mental. you know, you never know. >> reporter: i know that this has been a long road. do you think you'll spend a year walking better, dealing with ptsd you've got or do you think this is long term for much of your life? >> i think definitely the ptsd and tbi is more of a life thing. but the walking i think we can overcome and just take it for what it is and be glad that i'm still here. >> so tbi, traumatic brain injury, how are they getting the help and is it better now than it was? >> well, that's getting a lot better than it ever was before. you know, this was such a mystery when we came into this war. we did not anticipate that there would be so many of these injuries in terms of ied explosions, what we call invisible injuries, these wounds that you can't see sometimes so those that have it, there's still the stigma problem. people don't want to talk about that they've got it. it's changing very quickly. as that happens and we learn more about the brain, we know about the liver and kidneys but we don't know much about the brain. that's much better but it will take some time. >> in terms of the attention that the american people are paying to this, many are out of sight and out of mind. i also want to play what the corporal said about that. >> do you think us in the media are just not reporting enough about what happened? >> if a soldier gets killed y'all cover it. i think it's important that y'all cover more about the wounded warriors and -- because i mean look around. there's hundreds of wounded warriors here. walter reed is overflowing with patients. >> you are a wounded warrior in our ranks, in the ranks of journalism. what do you say on this holiday weekend to what she just told you? >> well, i think any time somebody meets somebody that was injured, they want to do everything they can. i've definitely seen that. a lot of times it's in your community or neighborhood you might not know anybody because it's only 1% of the people in the country are serving. if you do meet them you want to do it. it's just i think when people don't want to do something it's because it's a different world. the rest of us have a different world and their world is over here. once it comes together -- >> you have really with your wife lee taken on this mission of raising funds, of raising awareness for the walking wounded who come back. >> there is so much nonprofit help as you're saying, something like jericho, for example, helping the homeless because there's gaps. you know, the government is doing a lot, more and more all the time but there needs all these holes we got to fill up that happens between walter reed and then their community when they get home. so you fill this gap and you help everything from education to help the physical, help -- to health care. all those things need to be done in the private world, as well. >> bob, thank you very much indeed. thanks a lot. and now we're joined by general peter chiarelli, the vice chief of staff of the u.s. army. he was last on this program in august to discuss some of the challenges facing service members when they come home. so welcome back to this program. >> well, thank you very much. >> and i want to ask you, i mean it's painful looking at that report that bob did. do you think america is meeting its moral obligation to the people who she sends out to fight her battles for freedom and against terrorism? >> well, i think we're doing everything we possibly can to learn as much as we can about the brain and that's really the issue. it's trying to understand the brain as well as we do the other organs in the body. >> but the moral obligation, why are these people homeless to begin with? how is that possible? >> part of the problem is posttraumatic stress and traumatic brain injury and getting them the help they need. one of the things we're trying to do, all the services are doing is through our wounded warrior program is take those soldiers who are wounded most seriously and put them into programs for the army -- it's our warrior treatment facilities that we have where we ensure that they get the help that they need and their transition from the military to civilian life is not done without ensuring that they're in the va system. >> you mentioned transition and one of the things that bob was talking about is this hard transition between coming home basically lights off, lights on at war and then not at war and practically overnight. how does one help them with the transition? >> well, we're working very, very hard to get at high-risk behavior. what we see is a soldier down range for 12 months in a very high adrenaline environment where every single day he or she finds themself facing an enemy and they come home and many times want to replicate that. we're looking at programs that first of all ensure that we are identifying early on those who are going to have a rough time reintegrating and then taking soldiers and putting them in high-stress kind of events that are safe for them such as water rafting and outdoing, those kind of sports to burn off that adrenaline rather than getting on a motorcycle and traveling down a road at 100 miles an hour without a helmet on. >> but do you think when it comes to, for instance, homelessness that it's high-risk behavior that is responsible for that? >> well, i think we have to do a better job of ensuring that all soldiers, not just those that are seriously wounded that we see but those that may not be are informed of the services that are available to them so none of them leave the service like the young man did and find themselves in a situation where they have nowhere to live. >> and how dramatically are these repeated deployments affecting them? i mean i was stunned doing the math as bob did, 2 million american servicemen and women have been rotated through iraq and afghanistan. >> if you want to get at these issues, we need more time at home between deployments. i was just down range, went to an aviation brigade. of about 1,500 folks, those senior pilots in that brigade, those individuals who have been flying mission after mission, 62% of them were on their third deployment and over -- and 40%, almost 40% were on their fourth deployment with very, very little time at home. >> it's huge. those numbers are huge. >> they're huge. >> and not enough time at home means what on the ground and when they finally return? >> it affects everything. it affects the divorce rate. it affects substance abuse. it affects everything. and we've kind of taken our focus and shifted it to ensure that we're getting at that. you know, the problem with posttraumatic stress is that in the united states the national institute of mental health will tell you for regular civilians it is 12 years between the initiating event and when someone first seeks help. now the issue there is not that they finally seek help, it's all the things that happen in between. everything from high-risk behavior to drug abuse to prescription drug abuse to anger management issues to divorce. i mean, those kinds of things are affected when people don't get treated for posttraumatic stress. >> and, again, we've been talking about the stigma of that. i think you in the military have been trying to address that. and there is a public service announcement that some of the -- those who have been awarded with the highest recognition here, medal of honor winners, have recorded. let's just put it up >> i put the war on every morning and i take it off every night. >> like you i have experienced the challenges of war. >> if you return from combat and have concerns about your mental health -- >> the tools and the resources are here now. >> make use of those services and stay strong. >> be courageous, ask for help. >> remember to refuse to accept defeat. >> never quit. don't let the enemy defeat you at home. >> i need to tell you a little story about that we were looking for a way to get the word out to soldiers. at first we thought we'd go to nfl football players. you know the issues they're having with traumatic brain injury and concussion and then someone came up with the idea after we talked to some medal of honor recipients, hey, why don't we talk to them. why don't we see if some of them would be willing to make that. these are truly the folks that soldiers look up to. >> is it making a difference? >> it's making a huge difference. we are finally starting to get at the stigma. we're not there and as the chief says he used to go into a room and ask 100 people how many people think that if they went and sought help it would affect their career and he'd get 90 hands up. now he goes into a room and asks the same question and 50 hands come up so we're making progress but we've got to keep on it. i brief every single brigade combat team that goes to iraq today. the leadership of that brigade, i do a video teleconference where we talk about traumatic brain injury and posttraumatic stress and try to explain to them what happens in the body when this occurs and that they've got to seek help. >> do you think you might go the nfl route because they're also heroes and macho men? >> well, we've got to first understand a more -- more about posttraumatic stress and tbi. one of the things we've done is we've instituted resilience centers down range. i was just down range. >> down range means you were on the ground in afghanistan? >> on the ground in afghanistan and if you go to the east, if you go to the south and you see the resilience centers that we've established for soldiers who are in blasts -- >> what's a resilience center? >> a resilience center is where a soldier goes in the event he's in a blast. if he's in a vehicle that's damaged, if he's within 50 meters of a blast and he's outside if he's in a building with a blast or loses consciousness, that individual is evaluated. even if they pass that first evaluation and do not have a concussion they're held out of the fight for 24 hours. sometimes the symptoms of concussion don't display themselves for 24 hours. we give them a second evaluation and if they pass that, they, in fact, go back to duty. if they fail either one of those in that 24-hour period, they go to a resilience center where we rest them until the brain has had an opportunity to heal from that concussion. >> and before that you would have just rotated them back on to duty? >> before that we had soldiers who knew that they had had a concussion, knew that they had their, quote, bell rung and they did nothing about it. >> let me play you something that the physical therapist at walter reed told bob woodruff. >> the amount of injuries that are now like double and triple amputees, that's increased a lot. we have many more like amputees that are missing two, three, some four limbs where initially it was just much more usual to have like below knee amputee or an above knee amputee. now there's a lot of doubles and triples. you know, that's been a big challenge. >> i mean she's describing the effects of what appear to be much bigger more devastating bombs. is that right? is that why? >> that's right, but, you know, i spent 20 -- i spent an entire day with 24 of the finest researchers in tbi and pts and they told me there are genetic factors. some people are more prone in a blast to get a concussion because of the way their body is made up. we know in pts, the closer you treat pts to the event that occurs, the more likely you are to help that individual. so much so that they told me that if the event occurs in the morning, it's very important that you bring the individual's anxiety level down before they go to sleep that night because in r.e.m. sleep something happens in the brain that causes an individual to remember that and make the pts hard story treat. >> so there's so much new information coming out about this. >> well, there's so much research being done, and we need to do more research. you know, no one's complaining about the way that we are working with amputees and the research that's being done there. the issue is we just don't know that much about the brain. we automatically assume so many times that a person that's in a blast has a concussion. many times they don't have a concussion. instead they have posttraumatic stress. >> you saw also the lady, the intelligence specialist, the chemical specialist in bob's report who is homeless. why is it that women service members have higher rates of homelessness, unemployment and suicide? >> well, the suicide, their numbers are, in fact, down for men. i mean, majority of my suicides are definitely men. one of the issues we're seeing with women is in child custody cases and the fact that -- and we're seeing it in men too when an individual leaves and many times divorce is an ugly thing with folks fighting back and forth to see who is going to keep the kids and every state law is different, and we find women in certain situations in some states and men in some states where their absence for a deployment, the fact that they're out for 12 months gives another individual in that state an advantage in a child custody case and i get these e-mails all the time. we work as hard as we can to help soldiers understand what their rights are. >> let me talk about health care rights. a report by iraq and afghanistan veterans of america calls the disability claim system antiquated and deeply flawed and says that the va benefit system has a backlog of about a million benefit claims for all veterans and some have waited months, even years just to clarify their medical disability status. what can be done to cut through this red tape for these people who have been fighting your wars? >> first of all, the partnership we have with the va today is better than it's been before. i say that because of retired general shinseki. he understands us and we work very, very closely with him. but the disability evaluation system is a world war ii relic. it was designed for a total different force coming out of world war ii. >> so when is it going to be fixed? >> not an all-volunteer force. congress has been busy doing a bunch of other things. >> when should it be fixed? >> we need to fix it right now. we need to take it on and understand that a volunteer army is totally different from the army we had in world war ii. that it is a totally different kind of soldier in today's army and throughout the services and we've got to fix that system. >> general chiarelli, thank you so much for joining us. >> well, thank you. >> appreciate it. and of course there is plenty that you can do to help those who have sacrificed for this country and there are two women on a mission to tell you just how. >> 1% of americans are serving in these wars, but 100% of americans need to reach out and support them and their families. >> they're not just any women. dr. jill biden and first lady michelle obama are challenging all americans to take action and find ways to support and engage military families. >> brave men and women who sacrificed a part of their lives for public service. >> whether through public service announcements or appearances, the message is the same. reminding military families that they're not alone by calling upon all americans to say thank you. >> one-quarter of all those men and women serving in afghanistan are national guard members so there has to be someone in your community that's in the national guard and so reach out. take over a pie that you've baked or just stick a note in the mailbox. >> the second lady, an english professor, is a military mom herself. her son beau served two years in iraq, and even before his deployment, jill biden was involved with local organizations that supported military families. but now she and the first lady have a bigger platform, to remind the nation what it can do to help. her wish this holiday season -- >> bring them all home. up next, a war reporter who spent seven months in taliban captivity. "new york times" correspondent david rohde and his wife, kristen mulvihill share their story of survival, "a rope and a prayer" when we come back. 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[ male announcer ] it's here. the all-new chevy cruze. msn autos called it "the class of its class right now." but that's not the only story. it's got turn-by-turn navigation, onstar, an available six-speed automatic transmission, remote keyless entry, and 10 air bags. it's a big story for a compact car. the all-new chevrolet cruze. get used to more. very well-qualified lessees can get a low-mileage lease on a 2011 chevrolet cruze ls for around $159 a month. call for details. coming up next, a kidnapping and the incredible story of a couple's shared ordeal. of a couple's shared ordeal. breaking story out of afghanistan. >> daring escape, "new york times" reporter david rohde was abducted more than seven months ago. >> david rohde. >> david rohde of "the new york times" vanished in the forbidding mountains of afghanistan and pakistan. tonight he is a free man. >> this weekend he managed to get away from his captor. >> found his way to a pakistani army scout who was able to get help and now we understand accord i according to "the new york times" reporting that he is at an american base in bagram. >> those breaking news reports came in june 2009 after pulitzer prize winning "new york times" reporter david rohde escaped from taliban captivity. in november 2008 he had been reporting from afghanistan when he agreed to an in-person interview with the taliban commander outside kabul. but the planned interview turned into an ambush as rohde was kidnapped and taken to the volatile border region of north waziristan in pakistan, a taliban and al qaeda stronghold. seven months later rohde and his afghan colleague made a daring middle of the night escape as their captors slept using a rope to scale the walls of their compound and make their way to safe haven at a nearby pakistani military base. we're joined now by david rohde and his wife kristen mulvihill whose new book "a rope and a prayer: a kidnapping from two sides" shows the impact of war on their family throughout david's harrowing seven month, ten-day captivity. i actually want to ask you why you decided to write it in the he said, she said narrative? >> we thought it was important to show both sides of the story and, you know, we got this attention but there are thousands of families in the military, there are diplomats, aid workers, all working overseas in iraq, afghanistan and so many countries and you don't see the other side of it and what kristen went through is just as important if not more important to what i went through. >> well, david obviously got all the attention. >> yes. >> what was it that you wanted to say about the spouse being at home? >> yes, i mean i hope the story resonates beyond kidnapping. you know, there are military families that are separated from their loved ones for months at a time so i hope it resonates with anyone dealing with separation or in a position to make life and death decisions for a spouse when they're unable to do so for themselves. and we just hope it personalizes the war, puts a personal face on the issue. >> and for you, you're a professional, you're a photo editor here working at "cosmopolitan" magazine while your husband was in captivity. >> exactly, and we kept the case out of the news, which was something the family felt very strongly about. we did not want it publicized so i went about my daily activities at work at a photo producer. >> why did you decide to keep it out of the news? why did "the new york times" want to do that, david? >> there was a general consensus among sort of security experts that if it's a government, it's iran, north korea, go public, if it's a young militant, it doesn't help. it just raises the -- >> yet you recount you did tell the militants that they could get money and prisoners released from guantanamo. >> i did. >> on whose authority did you tell them that? >> i was in an effort frankly to save our lives. very worried about the lives of my two afghan colleagues and in the past they killed an afghan. and one of the problems we saw in writing this is that some governments do pay. in a past case an italian case, there were some draen hostages and rumors of millions being paid for them but i was told an al jazeera film crew were on the way and arab mill plants were on their way and they'll decapitate you. i then said you can get money and prisoners for us. >> what was going through your head? you had just been married. you hadn't told kristen that you were going off to do something this dangerous s that the right thing to do? >> it was the wrong thing to do. you know, i regret the decision. it was completely unfair to her. i'll always regret it. i let competition get the best of me. >> dozens of journalists have safely interviewed the taliban and i wanted this to be the best book possible but i lost my way and i shouldn't have gotten so competitive. >> well, i want to ask but that because your book is called "a rope and a prayer." prayer, faith sustained you. >> yes, it did actually and family. i had a practice -- i was raised catholic and i really sort of fell back on prayer as a way to, you know, surrender without giving up. i ultimately knew the outcome was not going to be to up to me and it really helped me maintain positivity and find that intention, written prayer actually when i couldn't find that within myself. it kept me going. >> but you were not religious. >> no, and even from our time reporting in bosnia, you know, we've seen, you know, religion taken to extremes can be a very destructive force and i was with these militants deluded into thinking this was a religious war and despised me because i was unclean because i wasn't muslim. didn't want to eat food from the same plate as me and believed the u.s. army was forcibly converting afghan muslims to christianity but i in my time in captivity did end up saying prayers myself. i don't know -- i'm still skeptical about organized religion. if a friend suddenly faced a deadly illness, i might suggest prayer. i don't know if some god reaches down and comforts you or it's a psychological trick. >> let me ask you because given it was secret, the fact that he had been kidnapped, none of us knew, none of us published it, it was a little james bondy the way you went after his release. >> yes, it was. it was. and we did a bunch of things. you know, the fbi swooped in very early on to tell the family how the case might progress but they can't negotiate. they can't exchange funds or prisoners. so we hired a private security team to try to negotiate on the phone with the taliban. i also had a friend by the name of michael semple based in the region who advised me. i tried to send in notes to david through taliban elders, i don't know if they ever got to him or to the elders. i even, in fact, made a video at the request of a mullah close to the kidnappers that were holding him. he suggested, you know, the kidnappers have sent you several videos, why don't you send one back. it might be a nice gesture. >> and you spoke to some of them on the phone. >> i did. i was called at home twice. it was very surreal. they would always call with a stipulation that i look at the phone number and call them back. they didn't want to pay for the call, so it was adding insult to injury, but it always gave me pause. it gave me a moment to catch my breath and sort of figure out what to say. our conversations were highly scripted between demanding millions of dollars and prisoners, they would say, you know, we're going to go off and pray and we'll get back to you so it was very strange. >> how long did it take for them to ever get back to you? >> it would be weeks at a time and it wouldn't necessarily be by telephone. it may be through an emissary. >> what did you learn from these taliban who had you? are they more radical than you thought, less? what did you learn from them? >> they were very radical. it's very dangerous. i was held in the same place where faisal shahzad, the young manage who tried to set off the bomb in sometimes square was trained. nothing has changed since i escaped from captivity. 17 months ago the obama administration repeatedly asked the pakistani military to remove this. it's a mini state. they train suicide bombers. they do whatever they want and the problem continues today and they're carrying out cross border attacks and killing american servicemen. from this place. >> and, indeed, the afghan review, the war review suggested that even the fragile progress that's been made in afghanistan is threatened precisely from north waziristan. do you see any willingness in your continued reporting by the pakistanis to really crack down on that? >> it's all about india and as long as there's this india/pakistan rivalry, the pakistanis continue to see the taliban as proxies they can use to stop india from coming in and making inroads in afghanistan. you know, richard holbrooke was trying to do this. he was trying to sort of reduce tensions between india and pakistan. there are assurances that we can make to the pakistani maybe ask the indians to back off in afghanistan. the pakistani military is a rational actor. they don't agree with the taliban. they're not secretly islamists so i think there is a solution. you know, i think we have to keep trying, and it's this regional dynamic that will stabilize afghanistan. >> so while he's thinking geopolitics and his particular area of reporting. >> yes, exactly. >> captive there and still, you're having to go about your daily work as a photo editor at "cosmopolitan" chatting with your colleagues. >> yes, exactly. >> how did that -- i mean, how? >> it was very tough. actually two weeks into the captivity, yeah, two weeks in i told the editor in chief and she kept that secret throughout. she was tremendous. as the time dragged on i had to tell more people but it was very strange the first few months, you know, i would be planning shoots and in the office and i would get a call from the fbi and, you know, we have a video communication of david. can you duck out and meet us in front of starbucks on 57th street? so it was -- it really was kind of like leading a double life. >> and you were able to call kristen a couple of times. >> yes. they were very neck logically adept. they had a satellite phone. they called on cell phones and they even googled me, so they -- what was so interesting they were kind of -- globalization is happening in the tribal areas of pakistan but they pick and choose whatever formation fits their conspiracy theorys. >> what information about you fit their conspiracy theories as they googled you? >> they, you know, basically saw the west as sort of hedonistic and said they hated "the new york times" because it supported secularism and therefore they were their enemies. they were so deluded that they thought that if you remember the kidnapping of the somali pirate -- i'm sorry, i mean the american sea captain by somali pirates and said, no, those three weren't shot. the american government secretly paid a $25 million ran some. that was false but that was the expectation they had. >> after being there for seven months how did you make the decision finally to decide to escape? >> our captors' initial demands were $25 million and 15 prisoners being released from guantanamo bay, cuba. after 7 months they had reduced their demands to $8 million and the release of 4 prisoners. they told me every day they had me they were delivering massive political blows to the american government. i mean, i said my case isn't even public. people don't care. i came to interview the taliban. people are angry at me and they were just delusional and we just decided the only way we could end this would be to try to escape and they moved us to this house, it was very close to that pakistani base and we didn't think it would work and it did. we're so lucky. >> and you snuck out while they were asleep. >> we had a ceiling fan in the room where we slept with the guards. and there was an old air conditioner called a cooler, and it made a tremendous amount of noise, and that was what made us -- with the power back on, we decided that kind of covered up the sound we made and i had found a rope, it was a car tow rope and made it to the roof. lowered ourselves down the wall and, you know, it's just a miracle. >> how did you hear he was released? >> david called home and my mother picked up and she took notes on a post-it pad so when i ran home there were all these little stickies strewn across the living room and very quickly we got on the phone. we called "the new york times" and they sent the editor over to the house and between the two of us or the three of us, we contacted hillary clinton. we contacted richard holbrooke who had been fantastic throughout and they in turn contacted the pakistanis and they said, we know where david is. please make sure he's exited safely from the region. >> meantime, as kristen was doing that, had you barely escaped with your life. the pakistanis thought they might need to shoot you. >> there was -- we got to the edge -- we went over that wall as you talked about. we get to this base. we're nearly shot because i have a beard down to here and in local clothes. they take us on this base. and i really want to emphasize this, this very brave young pakistani captain, he was a moderate and he apologized to me for the kidnapping, allowed us on the base, let me make that crucial call home because i thought other pakistani officers might hand us back to the taliban. there are moderates in pakistan and afghanistan, most of the population opposes the taliban and i'm here today because a moderate afghan and moderate pakistani helped me and i think it's vital that people know this and we want the book to be more about the moderates in a sense than about my kidnappers. >> and do you allow your husband to go back to afghanistan? >> well, i actually didn't have to tell him not to go back again. he came to that conclusion on his own. >> and do you want to go back? >> i don't. my days as a war correspondent are over, and i'm just so lucky to be home, and again we wrote this because we're just one small story. this is kind of this hidden war that most americans -- it doesn't affect their daily lives. such a small percentage of americans serve in the military or overseas, so, you know, it's just one small story of what's happening to tens of thousands of americans as well as average afghans and pakistanis. >> well, thank you both very much, indeed. david, kristen, thanks very much, indeed, and i hope people read it and get that message from you both. thanks. >> thank you. >> and as this year comes to a close, it seems that peace in the middle east is as elusive as ever and yet every day many israelis and palestinians are trying to see past the conflict. abc "nightline" anchor terry moran traveled to the middle east to meet two families who have lost loved ones in the conflict and to see how they're overcoming their pain. >> reporter: what does it cost this land? what does it cost to claim it to make a nation upon it? what sacrifice is asked of one to call this land home? >> the jews, for centuries, we survived in order to live our life but now we live to survive only. >> i know this is life. this is history. but thousands and millions of people to suffer for what? >> reporter: two people, an israeli author, a palestinian aid official, two human beings on either side of the wall between their peoples on either side of the conflict that has scarred this land for 60 years and more. you know that history. this is about the price of history. this is where your mom was killed then. >> right. this is my parents' house where i grew up and this is where she usually spends her friday afternoons. >> reporter: lana abuhiglay is a palestinian professional woman with a degree in engineering and a successful career as a development expert on the west bank. in october 2002 lana's mother was shot and killed by israeli forces as she sat here just outside the door of her home. >> they fired -- they preyed at them with an automatic machine gun. about we believe around 14 bullets because we found about 14 empty bullet cases, and you can see here one bullet hit right above her head. >> reporter: shodden was killed when a bullet tore through her chest. an israeli army investigation found soldiers fired on the house to enforce a curfew in the city but that they had overstepped the rules of engagement. >> it's been eight years now. >> reporter: you've left the glass. >> we left the glass. none of us is ready to take that decision to remove it. >> reporter: on the night her mother was killed lana and her brothers discussed revenge. >> so we were actually debating the four of us how many israeli lives? and how do we do it and who is going to be the one to sacrifice and who is going to blow himself up in the middle of tel aviv? >> reporter: what stopped you? >> my father, he said, you think you're going to keep the memory of your mom by revenging her through the same means she was killed. she raised you differently. >> reporter: you sacrificed your revenge. you gave it up. >> we gave it up but we gained -- we gained a lot. >> reporter: what? what have you gained? >> we gained that ability to feel that we could do something productive. >> reporter: what can possibly give meaning to the sacrifices this land has so long demanded? >> i cannot afford the luxury of despair, you know, it's so easy to despair here and i see so many people who so enthusiastically almost become desperate. no, i think it's too easy. >> reporter: david grossman is one of israel's leading writers and peace activists. in 2006 his son ori, a tank commander in the israeli army, was killed in the last hours of the second lebanon war. >> the only meaning that i can have is that i know that he went there in order to save his comrades and there his tank was hit. this is the only meaning. i do not see meaning in that war, no, sorry. i could see much more meaning if he had saved a life. >> reporter: did it make you angry? were you angry after? >> each time i'm angry, i'm not in contact with my son. but if i want to be in contact with him, i should not be tempted to this cheap anger. >> reporter: what both these brilliant people discovered at the broken heart of the seemingly endless conflict is that what counts is not the sacrifice of so much over so many years, what counts is what it must be for. what counts is what comes next. >> sometimes the sacrifice itself become an ideal, and maybe it's not necessary anymore. maybe it is more necessary that we shall find ideals of life, of humanity, of a dialogue, of the sanctity of humans' life rather than sanctity of ideas. it's a question. >> reporter: in this land that can be the only meaning of sacrifice. terry moran, abc news, jerusalem. >> coming up next, "in memoriam" and later "the sunday funnies." sunday funnies." 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[ male announcer ] just like you, business pro. just like you. go national. go like a pro. just like you. hi, how are you doing?ne. hi, evelyn. i know it's been a difficult time since your mom passed away. yeah. i miss her a lot, but i'm okay. wow. that was fast. this is the check i've been waiting for. mom had a guaranteed acceptance life insurance policy through the colonial penn program, and this will really help with the cost of her final expenses. is it affordable? it costs less than 35 cents a day-- that's pretty affordable, huh? man: are you between the ages of 50 and 85? for less than 35 cents a day, you can get guaranteed acceptance life insurance through the colonial penn program. you cannot be turned down because of your health. there are no health questions or medical exam. your rate will never go up, and your benefit will never go down due to age-- guaranteed! call about the colonial penn program now. and now "the sunday funnies." a group of tsa agents, this is real, have formed a choir to entertain passengers as they're going through security. of course, it's not helping that the only song the tsa choir sings is journey's "loving, touching, squeezing." >> so what if reid is not asking republicans to work on christmas day. that's just the beginning of this holy week. he's desecrating december 26th when good christians head back to the mall for the holy day of returnance. which commemorates jesus' returning of the frankincense. >> earlier today president obama signed the don't ask, don't tell legislation. it was a tremendous ceremony. did you see it? take a look at this. >> this is done. ♪ it's raining men alleluia it's raining men ♪ >> we'll be right back. e right back. 10% of the world's medicine is counterfeit. affecting over a billion people a year. on a smarter planet, we're building intelligence into things. so we can follow this medicine from the factory to the distribution center... to the pharmacy... and know it's the real thing. keeping counterfeits off the shelves. in places like the u.s... tanzania... and india. smarter medicine is safer medicine. that's what i'm working on. i'm an ibmer. let's build a smarter planet. that's our program for today. i'll be off next week and my colleague jake tapper will be here. we leave you with the names of all the people who work to put this show on all year. thanks for watching. have a happy and safe new year. ♪ hallelujah hallelujah ♪ ♪ hallelujah hallelujah ♪ ♪ for the lord god omnipotent reigneth ♪ ♪ hallelujah hallelujah ♪ ♪ hallelujah hallelujah ♪ ♪ for the lord god omnipotent reigneth ♪ ♪ for the lord god omnipotent reigneth ♪ ♪ hallelujah hallelujah ♪ ♪ hallelujah hallelujah ♪ ♪ for the lord god omnipotent reigneth ♪ ♪ hallelujah ♪ king of kings and lord of lords ♪ king of kings and lord of lords ♪ forever and ever hallelujah hallelujah ♪ ♪ king of kings lord of lords hallelujah hallelujah ♪ ♪ ♪ hallelujah