AC: "An IED is about to
hit this Afghan police gun truck."
Tuesday, September 08, 2009
Length: 7:03
LARGE (81.3 MB)
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SMALL (8.6 MB)
The second AC360 report also focuses on
Michael's time in Kandahar last week. As he
mentioned in
this afternoon's discussion on The Situation
Room, one night when he had gone out on patrol
with a local police force working to curb Taliban
activity in the area, the truck he and his
cameraman were riding in hit an IED.
(Michael's friend, Mullah Gul Akund, was mentioned
in this
article he did for Time in January
2002.)
ANDERSON
COOPER: Michael Ware is back from patrol, surviving a
close call with a roadside bomb. He joins us shortly,
along with 360 M.D. Sanjay Gupta, who ended up
performing some delicate life-saving surgery at a
busy field hospital. Also joined by national security
analyst Peter Bergen.
COOPER: Hey. We're coming to you tonight from Marine
Camp Jaker in Afghanistan's southern Helmand
Province. We're with the 1st Battalion 5th Marines of
the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade. The troops here
and across the region involved both in combat
operations and something more, something less
tangible.
It's called clear, hold, and build. That's the
strategy. Clear the Taliban. That's the idea. Protect
civilians by sticking around and building both
infrastructure and trust.
They say it's going pretty well here in Helmand
Province, in this area. Elsewhere, though, there are
major challenges and setbacks. In Eastern Afghanistan
today, four Marines were killed in what is being
called a sophisticated ambush by Taliban forces. And
roadside bombs are still everywhere.
Michael Ware found out firsthand, a very close call
he had in Kandahar on night patrol. He is elsewhere
now, someplace safer. But here's what it looked like
at night in harm's way.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAEL WARE (voice-over): This is one night, one
police patrol in Kandahar. A hidden Taliban roadside
bomb, an IED, is about to hit this Afghan police gun
truck. A CNN cameraman and I are riding in it. By
some miracle, it detonates a heartbeat too soon.
Otherwise, we'd all be dead. Instead, gravel rains
over us.
(on camera): You all right?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.
WARE (voice-over): Then comes the shooting, a
so-called death blossom, police firing aimlessly to
ward off further attack.
But this is the true front line against the Taliban.
It's where President Obama's war will ultimately be
won or lost.
(on camera): Oh, my God.
WARE: On that front line is my old friend Afghan
police commander Mullah Gul Akund. I have been away
for six years reporting in Iraq, so it's a relief
just to see he's still alive.
It takes a certain kind of man to survive for long on
the Kandahar front, a hardened warrior with little
mercy, a man like Mullah Gul. As a police commander,
he has been killing Taliban since December 2001. For
the Taliban, that means he's been a target for eight
years. I have no idea how he survived.
"I protect myself," he says. "God has a date for
everyone's death. And when that day comes, they will
die. But my day has not yet come."
The men and boys he commands guard the back door to
Kandahar. After Mullal Gul's outpost comes territory
fully controlled by the Taliban. Through that
mountain pass, just beyond his checkpoint, it's all
Taliban.
As for our night patrol, we have just broken the
Muslim fast of Ramadan with Mullah Gul and his forces
in a neighborhood called Loya Wala.
(on camera): It's very hard to see me where we are
right now, because the men we're with are using as
little light as possible. These are Afghan police
patrolling Kandahar. This is the Taliban heartland.
This is the birthplace of the -- the Taliban. Let's
get moving. We want to get back in the trucks. These
men do this every night. And where we are right now
is a Taliban-held neighborhood. Their commander says,
if they weren't patrolling, there would be attacks
almost every night.
(voice-over): In Mullah Gul's vehicle, he warns me we
could be heading into trouble.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, the street that we are
getting inside now is called (INAUDIBLE) yes?
WARE (on camera): Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And this is the most dangerous
place in Loya Wala.
WARE: Oh, really?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
WARE: So, we're about enter the most dangerous area
in Loya Wala.
This is where they have a lot of contact with the
insurgencies, firefights, IEDs. There is a curfew in
place here for 10 p.m. So, anyone on the streets
after 10 p.m. is deemed suspicious. Here we are in
the middle of the night moving through this
neighborhood, watching the police at work.
(voice-over): We arrive at an intersection controlled
by Taliban fighters.
(on camera): Until about 10 days ago, this
intersection here at this small bridge was a Taliban
running point. The commander says, every night, they
were spotting as many as 20 or 30 Taliban gathering
here to share information and from where they'd
launch attacks.
By by establishing this one permanent patrol base, a
checkpoint not far from here, he has managed to force
the Taliban to move to another area.
(voice-over): We didn't know the strike against our
vehicle was only moments away. The police gun truck
CNN cameraman Sarmad Qasiri and I are riding in
enters this back street. The Taliban bomb is hidden
ahead of us.
(EXPLOSION)
WARE: It seems victory is still a long way off.
(on camera): You all right?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Michael, what's your assessment of the
situation on the ground in Afghanistan?
WARE: Well, you have an American mission virtually in
crisis. I mean, you have the country here in
Afghanistan in a political limbo. They don't even
know who their president is right now. They don't
have the finalized outcome of last month's
presidential election, to some degree, not that it
matters.
In many Afghans eyes, it's one bunch of crooks or
another bunch of crooks. But the problem is that the
storm of corruption allegations that is delaying the
count has stripped any incoming government of its
legitimacy. And that is a heavy body blow to the U.S.
mission.
Also, the whole war plan is up in the air. America is
reconsidering how to fight this war. And it simply
doesn't have enough American, NATO or any kind of
troops, including Afghan, to fight all the fights
that are necessary to put any real kind of pressure
on the Taliban. So, it's gone to be a real
challenging time for the Obama administration to
decide whether it really wants to fight this war or
not -- Anderson.
COOPER: Yeah. To many people on the ground here, it
seems inevitable that the military is going to ask
for more forces here in Afghanistan. They're going to
have as many as 68,000 troops here by the end of this
year. President Obama's already ordered 21,000 new
forces here. They will be fully here by the end of
this year, 68,000 troops, in addition to some 38,000
other foreign troops, NATO forces.
But it seems likely they're going to have to ask for
more troops, because this strategy of clear, hold,
and build, they're not moving to areas that they
can't stay in and that they can't build in. And they
simply can't go into some areas, even here in Helmand
Province. There are some simply areas they cannot go
to. And that's where the Taliban is in force.