HDNet's 'Dan Rather Reports' Travels to Afghanistan to Report on America's Forgotten War

HDNet's 'Dan Rather Reports' Travels to Afghanistan to Report on America's Forgotten War

Program presents interview with Commander, General David McKiernan and exclusive footage of soldiers patrolling the Pakistani border - Tuesday, January 6 at 8:00 p.m. ET

DALLAS, Jan. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- This Tuesday, "Dan Rather Reports" will present a powerful look inside America's "forgotten" war in Afghanistan. Seven years after the U.S. invasion, the Taliban is back, Al Qaeda is on the doorstep and the threat to U.S. military success there is suddenly very real.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080324/HDNETLOGO)

Even though Kabul was liberated long ago, the city and every region in the country remain on edge. For a city that is under NATO and Afghan control, Kabul is a very dangerous place, especially for westerners working there.

In an interview with Dan Rather, the American Commander in Afghanistan, General David McKiernan talks about his urgent appeal to Washington. He needs more troops and he needs them now.

"First of all -- there is more that NATO can do, and should do," McKiernan told Rather. "Secondly, those nations that, (for whatever reason, political support or otherwise) don't want to commit their men and women in uniform to fight a counter insurgency, there are other ways of contributing to this campaign. Working with the police, helping to fund the growth of the Afghan army, providing additional civilian capacity to improve governance."

"It's a hard situation," said McKiernan. "We're in the middle of a long, hard counterinsurgency campaign."

During the program, the HDNet crew also visits with soldiers at a U.S. Army outpost in the Khost province of eastern Afghanistan.

These men are expected to patrol an area that is about 350 square miles - more than ten times the size of Manhattan with about 30 men to cover that entire area.

While on patrol with these men, Rather's crew document the candid thoughts of these soldiers about what life is like on the Pakistani border. Our producer and crew were actually on site when a suicide bomber detonated himself at the entrance gate when an Afghan security guard refused to let the man on the base. Two Afghan security guards were wounded in the attack.

Clips of the program can be found at the following ftp site:

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"Dan Rather Reports - The Commander" premieres on HDNet on Tuesday, January 6 at 8:00 p.m. ET with an encore presentation at 11:00 p.m. PT to accommodate West Coast prime time.

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Source: HDNet

CONTACT: Colette Carey of HDNet, +1-303-542-5576, ccarey@hd.net

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