NPR's On Point with Tom Ashbrook - The New Fight in Afghanistan. Guests:
Joining us from Kabul, Afghanistan, is Laura King, reporter for The Los Angeles Times. She's recently been in the country's far eastern region, near the Pakistan border, at Forward Operating Base Salerno. Her piece in today's LA Times reports on a new wave of coordinated Taliban attacks.
Also from Kabul we're joined by Pamela Constable, reporter for The Washington Post. She's just back from Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand Province, the focal point of the current coalition push. She's also been in Faizabad recently, in the country's remote northeast.
From Hardin, Montana, we're joined by Gretchen Peters, a journalist who has covered the Afghanistan-Pakistan region for more than decade with the Associated Press and ABC News. She is author of the new book Seeds of Terror: How Heroin Is Bankrolling the Taliban and Al Qaeda.
From Monterey, California, we're joined by Kalev Sepp, professor of defense analysis at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School. He is a retired Army lieutenant colonel and special forces officer. From 2007 to January 2009, he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations Capabilities, helping to oversee global counterterrorism policy.
The New Fight in Afghanistan - Audio of today's program.