captioning sponsored by cbs from cbs news world headquarters in new york, this is the cbs evening news with katie couric. couric: good evening, everyone, from kabul. as the war in iraq is winding down, the war here in afghanistan is heating up. with the surge ordered by president obama, there are now nearly 100,000 u.s. soldiers and marines here and 40,000 coalition troops. the military reported another death today, bringing the u.s. toll for august to at least 16. as casualties mount, the american public is growing more skeptical. 43% now say the war was a mistake. so why then are u.s. forces here? how long will they stay? and what is the definition of success? we ve come in search of answers. and we ll begin with the new u.s. commander. we went along with him and headed to the eastern part of afghanistan. the day began early in the capital city. before general david petraeus got an assessment of the war from his top commanders in the field, we got an assessment from h
but we ve got to make a lot more, obviously. it s a tough fight. couric: after nine years, over $300 billion, 1200 u.s.es lives, not to mention coalition forces and civilian casualties, a lot of americans thinking what the heck are we doing here still? well, i can understand that. i mean, it s easy to get frustrated about afghanistan. we should remember why we re here. this is where the 9/11 attacks were planned. it is very much a vital national security interest to the united states and really all the countries of the world that are fighting extremism to make sure that there are not sanctuaries in this country once again from which transnational extremists can launch attacks. couric: but many americans are growing increasingly disillusioned with the war. the taliban has gained ground. i.e.d. attacks have more than doubled in the last year. july was the deadliest month for u.s. troops since the war began. marjah, which was supposed to be a model of counter-insurgency in
everyone. fromicable. as the war in iraq is winding down, the war here in afghanistan is heating up. with the surge ordered by president obama, there are now nearly 100,000 u.s. soldiers and marines here and 40,000 coalition troops. the military reported another death today, bringing the u.s. toll for august to at least 16. as casualties mount, the american public is growing more skeptical. 43% now say the war was a mistake. so why then are u.s. forces here? how long will they stay? and what is the definition of success? we ve come in search of answers. and we ll begin with the new u.s. chander. we went along with him and headed to the eastern part of afghanistan. the day began early in the capital city. before general david petraeus got an assessment of the war from his top commanders in the field, we got an assessment from him. well, we re making progress but we ve got to make a lot more, obviously. it s a tough fight. couric: after nine years, over $300 billion, 1200