That’s a big shift from four years ago. Here’s what the Republican presidential candidate John McCain was saying about climate change.

“It’s real. It’s a danger to our planet, it’s a danger to the future of these young people who are in front of me and their children. And it’s got to be stopped.”

You won’t hear talk like that from any of the Republican presidential candidates this go-round. There’s a reason for that, said David King at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

“In a time of real economic distress, who is paying attention to global climate change? And especially if the costs of solving the reality of global climate change are so high they’re going to come directly in conflict with the economy, with jobs, and who wants to face that reality?”

But the Republican presidential candidates are more than just ignoring the issue, they’re running away from it. Take the case of Newt Gingrich. He appeared in a commercial in 2008 sitting on a couch next to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. The two politicians introduce themselves, then Pelosi says, “We don’t always see eye to eye, do we Newt?”

Gingrich responds, “No, but we do agree our country must take action to address climate change.”

Gingrich has had to answer repeatedly for that commercial during this campaign season. Here’s what he told Fox News.

“It’s probably the dumbest single thing I’ve done in recent years. It is inexplicable.”

Gingrich also said he’s scrapping a chapter about climate change in his new book.

William Moomaw with the Fletcher School at Tufts University said the Republican candidates are distancing themselves from the issue for ideological reasons. “They believe that addressing climate change will require government action, or even worse, intergovernmental action.”

Moomaw said to understand just how far the Republican Party has shifted on environmental issues, consider the case of the incandescent light bulb. President George W. Bush signed a law in 2007 that requires new bulbs to be 30 percent more efficient. Moomaw said many Republicans now see that law as a source of government intrusion.

“Candidates like Michele Bachmann were jumping up and down and shouting how they were going to repeal this – to be denied their right to put any lightbulb in any socket in America is just too much control, a loss of freedom.”

But it’s not just the Republican Party that’s not addressing climate change. President Obama has fallen virtually silent on the issue. If you visit his 2012 presidential Web site, you’d be hard pressed to find any mention of climate change and global warming. That’s a political calculation, said David King at Harvard.

“If there’s no benefit politically to talking about global climate change, then you just keep your mouth shut.”

Perhaps the president and the Republican candidates are simply following our lead. According to a recent poll from the Pew Research Center, Americans ranked global warming as the least important of 22 priorities, just behind campaign finance reform.

Eleven men are running for president, including the incumbent, Joseph Kabila, and almost 19,000 candidates are vying for some 500 seats in parliament. The ballot is more than 50 pages long and looks like a tabloid newspaper.

One election official in a polling station in the capital Kinshasa said in this district alone there are just under 1,000 candidates for parliament.

Just getting ballots to the 63,000 polling stations across the country has been a challenge – Congo is practically the size of Western Europe, with extremely poor roads. It’s covered by the second largest tropical rainforest in the world. The country has had to borrow dozens of helicopters from neighboring countries to transport election material. Some were grounded today because it’s the rainy season so, of course, it was raining.

“This is a difficult country to hold elections,” said Anita Vandenbeld, the Congo country director for the National Democratic Institute, which has been working with political parties here.

“It’s a very large country and there are a number of logistical problems. Added to that is the fact that there has been in some ways lack of communication between the political parties from the electoral commission, which if you combine it with the logistical problems, can create suspicion. We saw that with the violence that has occurred.”

The lead-up to the vote has seen hundreds of violent attacks, most by the country’s security forces against opponents of incumbent President Kabila. Over the weekend, at least nine people died and more than 80 were wounded in the capital, Kinshasa when the president’s republican guard fired into the crowds.

On Monday, in the neighborhood where Etienne Tshisekedi, Kabila’s main challenger, lives, people lined up to vote starting at six in the morning. The scene was peaceful, though chaotic for some.

Clothilde Bawota, who is 51, has already stopped at five different voting stations looking for her name on the registration list, but it’s not there.

“What can I do,” she said. “I’m also a citizen and I need to vote.”

For 19-year-old Maryous Ntumba, it’s his first time voting. He said he can barely remember the country’s last elections in 2006, when militias fought deadly street battles in Kinshasa after Kabila won in a runoff.

Maryous hopes it will be different this time.

“History has changed. The world and technology have evolved with science. We don’t want war here in the DRC, like what happened in Libya or Cote d’Ivoire,” Maryous said.

The average Congolese makes less than a dollar a day; the United Nations actually named Congo the least developed country in the world this year. That’s why Maryous said he’s voting for Etienne Tshisekedi. Maryous wants change, and he said wants to help be part of that change; he’s studying for his law degree.

“Because in our country, we have a problem with human rights,” Maryous said. “There are a lot of people who’ve been killed here. This is why I’m studying law, to defend my country.

But scratch below the surface and you quickly see how these elections could lead to more killing.

Maryous said he’s ready to die for his country, if the elections don’t go well.

The tension was evident at another voting station on the other side of Kinshasa. There, supporters of Tshisekedi accused election workers of stuffing ballots. They attacked him, kicking him repeatedly in the head, until police intervened. As the police led the man away, the crowd chanted after him, “100-percent thief!”

This wasn’t the only case of election-related violence today. In Congo’s second city, Lubumbashi, at least nine people were reported killed. And voting stations were burned in the capital of Western Kasai province.

All this doesn’t bode well for December 6th, the day provisional results are slated to be announced.

“I’m worried about violence,” said Glody Mfunkani Diasilua, a 19-year-old from Kinshasa. He’s also voting for the first time today, part of the first generation to grow up in a Congo where voting, not dictatorship, is the norm.

“We don’t want after elections people die,” Glody said. “It’s not good for us, we need peace. This country will be ours. I hope that the future will become better than today.”

However, Ortega was on the ballot in defiance of a constitutional ban on the re-election of sitting presidents. In fact, his refusal to step down has critics comparing Ortega to the Somoza dictatorship, which ruled Nicaragua for 43 years.

As a guerrilla leader, Ortega helped topple the Somoza regime in 1979 and his Sandinista government confiscated all of the Somoza’s land and businesses.

But one member of the Somoza dynasty has since returned to Nicaragua in a quest to rehabilitate his family’s name.

Alvaro Somoza takes me on a tour of what was once the presidential palace, where he grew up.

“This is where I took accordion lessons as a kid,” he said.

Somoza is the son of Luis Somoza, the second of three Somoza dictators who ruled Nicaragua between 1936 and 1979.

By all accounts Luis Somoza was the best of the three Somoza rulers.

“My father started the social security system in this country,” Alvaro said. “The minimum wage was established by my father; the labor code, the right to syndicate. I could go on and on and on and on.”

But Luis Somoza died of a heart attack in 1967 and his younger brother, Anastasio, who was commander of the country’s military, took over. Anastasio Somoza’s corruption, massive wealth and violent crackdowns on the opposition helped fuel the Sandinista revolution.

Shortly before his uncle was overthrown, Alvaro Somoza, who was then 27, fled Managua aboard his Cessna airplane.

“I managed to get to the airport with an overnight bag for three or four days, hoping that the shooting would be over,” he said. “I got in my 1-85 and flew to El Salvador, and I never came back. The shooting never stopped.”

Alvaro Somoza resettled in Florida where he sold luxury cars and started one of the state’s largest landscape nurseries.

After the Sandinistas were voted out of office in 1990, he became the first Somoza to return to Nicaragua. By then, the Sandinistas had torn down the statue to his father. They also rechristened hospitals and schools built by the Somozas with revolutionary names. Luis Somoza’s former mansion now houses the defense ministry, and it was renamed after a Sandinista guerrilla leader.

According to the guard at the gate, “This was part of the Somoza dynasty and when they were defeated, many things had to be changed, including the names of buildings and anything else that smelled of Somoza.”

The Somoza name remains so controversial that Alvaro has had no luck in persuading the government to return a confiscated cement company and other businesses and properties that he says were legitimately acquired by his family.

Still, Alvaro Somoza, who is now 59 and makes a living running fruit farms in Nicaragua, is well received by many older people who remember his father.

Nicaragua is one of the poorest countries in the hemisphere, but in the 1960s when Luis Somoza ruled the country, Nicaragua boasted one of the fastest growing economy in Latin America.

“I knew Alvaro’s father,” said Alberto Quiroz, a 64-year-old security guard. “He would sit down and talk to average people. He was an excellent president, one of the best.”

Hoping to trade in on that nostalgia, Alvaro Somoza has jumped into politics. He was campaign manager for presidential candidate Enrique Quiñones, who finished far behind Ortega in Sunday’s election. Alvaro Somoza is also considering running for mayor of Managua, or even president, in 2016.

As for whether his name would be a liability, Somoza said he thinks it would help.

“People in Nicaragua are clearly aware that they were taken for a ride in 1979, a communist ride that promised everything and delivered little or nothing.”

But economist Mario Flores, who worked in both the Somoza and Sandinista governments, said Alvaro would face long odds because Nicaraguan history books focus on the corruption and human rights violations of the Somoza family dictatorship.

Ironically, Alvaro Somoza now sees many similarities between his Uncle Anastasio, known as “Tacho,” who was overthrown by the Sandinistas, and Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega, who used dubious legal maneuvers so he could run for a third term in Sunday’s presidential election.

“Though my family did a lot of good things, they made a lot of mistakes,” Somoza said. “Not only that, but I go further to tell the current politicians: ‘Don’t make those same mistakes yourself.’ The last one, I’m telling President Ortega on a regular basis: ‘What is it that you don’t realize. Continuity is not something these people want. Didn’t you understand what happened to Uncle Tacho?’”

Liberians go to the polls on Tuesday to choose a president, less than a week after the incumbent Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was named a Nobel Peace Prize winner. It’s a pretty heady campaign endorsement, and it’s angered the other candidates in the race. But the Nobel is no guarantee that Sirleaf will win re-election.

Sao Marwlo drives a motorcycle taxi in the capital Monrovia seven days a week. He’s 19, and he can’t afford school fees to finish high school. He only earns about $60 a month. He said he won’t be voting for Sirleaf.

“The Old Ma, she really fooled us,” Marwlo said, using Sirleaf’s nickname, Ma Ellen. “She promised us a lot of things, and she never did it.”

He said Sirleaf promised free education for all and well-paying jobs, but she didn’t deliver. He’s most angry that Liberia’s police force remains largely corrupt. He said police can arrest people like him for no real reason, just to extort money.

Liberian youth like Marwlo could be a deciding factor in the presidential election. More than half of Liberia’s registered voters are under the age of 32.

Famous soccer star, George Weah (left), is running for Vice President and boosting the popularity of presidential candidate Winston Tubman. (Photo: Bonnie Allen)

Their platform isn’t much different from Sirleaf’s, but Weah’s presence on the ticket is a huge draw for young men. They’ve latched onto the ‘vote for change’ mantra.

“I’m voting for George Weah,” said one young man in Monrovia. “George Weah is the person who can make a better change.”

Weah is hailed as a native Liberian, far removed from the elite politicians who have historically ruled Liberia. He grew up in a slum and achieved fame and fortune as a professional athlete.

That impresses many young men more than Sirleaf’s Nobel. They say Weah will find them good jobs.

Still, for many it’s an unrealistic expectation. In a slum known as Sugar Hill, some ex-combatants sit down to talk to me, their eyes glazed over from smoking marijuana.

Mohamed Kuma, 22, is a former child soldier. He first held a gun when he was 12. A decade later, he steals cellphones to survive.

“I don’t got a job to do,” Kuma said, “so at the end of the day, I will still come on the street to steal. I will always steal from people.”

The International Crisis Group suggests that ex-combatants, like Kuma, pose the greatest risk to Liberia’s fragile peace this election. In the past week, many Liberians have withdrawn their money from the bank and stocked up on rice just in case violence breaks out. Steven Forkpa, a Monrovia store owner, said people are nervous.

“It put fear in people, so that’s why they’re buying more rice than ever before,” he said.

More than half of registered voters in Liberia are under the age of 32. (Photo: Bonnie Allen)

At Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s last campaign appearance, the Nobel laureate called for peace.

It’s considered unlikely that Sirleaf or any candidate will achieve an outright victory on the first ballot. Tensions could continue to simmer if, as expected, the vote goes to a run-off in early November.

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Lisa Mullins: Soccer’s global governing body, FIFA, re-elected its president today. Twelve-year incumbent, Sepp Blatter, will rule over FIFA for another four years. The vote took place after serious corruption allegations emerged, prompting calls for this election to be postponed. That didn’t happen in the end. The World’s, William Troop, is following this story. William, just a couple of days ago, FIFA president Sepp Blatter was under investigation for corruption. Now, he’s been re-elected president. What’s happened?

William Troop: Well, Sepp Blatter had been accused of knowing that others within FIFA were bribing members of the body who were going to vote in this election today. But FIFA’s ethics committee actually cleared Blatter of any wrongdoing. It did find that two other people were worthy of further investigation. That includes the one man who was challenging Blatter for the presidency of FIFA. He was suspended and taken out of the election, and he continues to be under investigation for actually trying to bribe members of FIFA $40,000 cash payments to vote for him in this election instead of Blatter.

Mullins: OK. So, he ended up not being a candidate at all. Sepp Blatter ends up being unopposed. But there’s still a lot of controversy swirling around him.

Troop: Yeah. There are still other corruption allegations swirling around FIFA and Blatter that have to do with how FIFA awarded the 20/22 World Cup to Qatar.

Mullins: And what makes that suspect?

Troop: Well, there have been allegations that Qatar bribed members of FIFA to vote for its candidacy to hold the world cup. It’s a very coveted thing to host the world cup. It brings in a lot of money. Qatar has a lot of money to devote to the campaign.  The allegation was that it bought votes from FIFA members to vote for its candidacy. Nothing’s been proven, I should say.  There was an email from one FIFA official who said that he thought Qatar had bought the vote. Then he has come out and said, well, actually he meant that they had a lot of money to spend on the campaign. So, nothing’s been proven, but the allegations continue to swirl around FIFA, and there’s still a call to review that vote in the future.

Mullins: So, who’s going to review it if that happens? I mean, here, we have Sepp Blatter back in as president. Is he really going to be the person to investigate and possibly reform FIFA?

Troop: Well, as it stands now, and with the vote today, he was basically re-elected on a campaign promise that he is the man to clean up FIFA, even though he’s the man who’s been overseeing this system that everybody suspects is corrupt for the last 12 years. But he claims he’s the one to clean it up, and 186 members of FIFA agreed with him today and re-elected him.

Mullins: William, soccer is huge around the world, but this particular election, why is it so important?

Troop: Well, FIFA, you have to remember, is the body that organizes The World Cup-the world’s most popular sporting event arguably.

Mullins: Bigger than the Stanley Cup even?

Troop: So they say.

Mullins: [Laughs]

Troop: And soccer is, by far, the most popular sport around the world.  And people just don’t like to see their sport tainted this way. So, there’s actually quite a lot of unhappiness with FIFA at this point. And you’re starting to hear it even from within the various soccer confederation around the world saying maybe we should be looking at the decision to award the World Cup to Qatar again and make sure it was clean.  If it wasn’t, review it. You’re starting to hear those things which even just a few months ago were just whisper.

Mullins: Because the World Cup is big sport and huge money.

Troop: And huge money. That’s part of the problem here because FIFA is made up of soccer federations from all over the world, 208 of them.  They get money from FIFA, from Sepp Blatter. He has set up a system by which FIFA makes most of its money during the world cup every four years. There are a lot of TV rights, a lot of sponsorship rights, and that money gets funneled to all of the soccer federations around the world.  So, there is a system set up that basically makes it a vested interest for them to keep it going because they get money back from it.

Mullins: All right. The World’s resident soccer expert, William Troop. Thank you for explaining the confusing world of FIFA, the soccer body that today re-elected its controversial president. William, thanks.

Troop: You’re welcome.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.

In France, the government is proposing that children start learning English at age three. It’s high time, they argue, that French educators face up to the fact that learning English gives you — and your country — an edge.

Good idea, say French intellectuals. But why English? According to French linguist, Claude Hagège, the proposal is “totally pointless, if not ridiculous.”

Now, before you write off Hagège as a good-for-nothing naysayer, consider this: he’s one of France best-known promoters of language-learning. He strongly supports the idea of people learning several languages if they can. But for Hagège, language is power– and speaking English is “not quite innocent.” From his perspective (and, I suspect, he is far from alone) it’s more important to resist the rise of English than it is to expose French youth to it, at least as a first foreign language. In his words, speaking English is “a guilty act because it is the language of very wealthy, industrialized countries. And I think any person who has a minimum of sense of justice cannot accept that because this means domination by the countries whose mother tongue this language is.”

It may be because of attitudes like this that French schools will continue to lag behind school systems elsewhere in Europe, when it comes to teaching English.

In Ireland, mandatory Irish learning in schools became an issue in the recent parliamentary elections. OK, so it didn’t sway voters as much as the economy did. But the party that won, Fine Gael, has promised to consider dropping Irish as a must-learn subject at school. In the old days — or at least when my dad went to school — learning Irish was considered act of patriotism in a new country eager to establish its national identity. It didn’t work. Despite massive government support, the vast majority of Irish people forgot most of the Irish they had been forced to learn. Fine Gael’s proposal, while upsetting the old guard and some native Irish speakers, struck a chord with some voters and commentators. Why not learn languages that are more widely spoken, like Spanish, French or Chinese — languages that might help young people get a leg up?

In Tunisia, journalists are getting used to their new freedoms; some are clinging to the old ways. The pod has a report from Tunis on how some news organizations are adapting quickly to their new freedoms, while others can’t figure out quite how to express themselves without a censor to frame reality for them.

Also, we have an interview with Anglo-Middle Eastern singer Natacha Atlas. Atlas isn’t known for her political or social stances. But recently she began singing about free speech in Egypt, and beyond.

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Tea Party protest at Capitol Hill (Photo: asterix611/Flickr)

Jason Margolis on The World:
• China, jobs, and the midterm election
• An Arizona law for Ohio
• The midterm campaign trail in Ohio

Congressional candidate Ann Kuster, Democrat, in New Hampshire talks with voters about one of her top campaign platforms: stopping the outsourcing of local jobs to China. (Photo: Jason Margolis)

Jason Margolis on The World:
• Immigration law’s impact on Virginia county
• An Arizona law for Ohio
• Global economy podcast

• BBC: The struggle for Iraq
• Washington pushes power-sharing for Iraq

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LISA MULLINS: I’m Lisa Mullins and this is The World. We begin today’s program in Iraq. The US combat mission there is officially over. The number of American soldiers in the country is now belong 50,000. But Iraqi insurgents have been capitalizing on the gaps in security as the US scales back its military presence. Insurgents have been hammering Iraqi forces and government buildings. Meanwhile, Iraqi politicians have failed to overcome their differences and form a new government. Correspondent Susannah George reports on the growing frustration in the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

SUSANNAH GEORGE:  Iraq’s parliament has held just one official session since the national elections in March. It lasted less than 20 minutes. That was just enough time to play the Iraqi national anthem and complete the swearing in. About 20 Iraqi legislators met yesterday in an informal session. The lawmakers pledged to make decisions, not speeches. But the only decision they made was to continue to meet this week. Still, Iraqi vice president Adel Abdul Mahdi who was at the meeting, expressed hope that it could yield results.

ADEL ABDUL MAHDI:  It will put the pressure on the members of the House of Representatives individually and the blocs. I think we accomplished a good step forward.

GEORGE: But not all the Members of Parliament share the vice president’s optimism. They point out that while the violence continues, there is still no government.

MAHMOUD OTHMAN: It is still in square one.

GEORGE: Kurdish lawmaker Mahmoud Othman says that the politicians are getting nowhere.

OTHMAN: They meet each other always but believe me, all the meetings, all the talking, all this time, it didn’t come up with a result because they want to – they’re concentrating on one point, which blocs should form and who will be the prime minister.

GEORGE: Othman says that Iraqi politicians do not appear ready to lead.

OTHMAN: Even if they go into one government this way, then they will be against each other inside the government. They couldn’t achieve much.

GEORGE: Still, the establishment of a weak government might not be the worst thing that could happen here. That’s according to Joost Hiltermann of the International Crisis group.

JOOST HILTERMANN:  We’re in a situation in Iraq where the choice is between civil war and some stability, but maybe not very effective government and I think of the two evils, civil war is the greatest one and we should avoid that really at all costs.

GEORGE: Hiltermann says the Iraqi politicians are making some progress behind the scenes, but that’s not enough to satisfy Haider al-Abadi, a leading figure in the Dawa Party. Al-Abadi says he’s embarrassed by the failure of Iraq’s lawmakers to form a new government.

HAIDER AL-ABADI: Sometimes as a politician you cannot defend certain things. I cannot defend the stalemate of the political process. I think time is not on our side. Not the side of Iraq, not the side of the people.

GEORGE: As if to underline al-Abadi’s point two car bombs went off in Baghdad yesterday as the politicians were meeting. The bombs killed at least 31 people. It was the worst violence here since president Obama formally declared an end to US combat operations in Iraq on September 1^st. His administration says Iraqi forces are up to the task of protecting their own country. For The World, Susannah George in Baghdad.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.

Andrea Crossan’s report was funded in part by a fellowship from the International Reporting Project.

• More on Togetherness Supreme
• The International Reporting Project

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DAVID BARON: Kenyans went to the polls today to vote on a new constitution, one that would rein in presidential powers. It was a largely peaceful vote. That’s in contrast to the presidential election of 2007. That vote was followed by weeks of bloodshed. One of the flashpoints for the violence was the massive shantytown of Kibera. As the World’s Andrea Crossan reports, a new film tells the story of the post-election turmoil through the eyes of those who witnessed it.

ANDREA CROSSAN:  The film is called Togetherness Supreme. It follows a familiar Hollywood plotline. Kamau is an artist and a dreamer. Otieno, a musician and a hustler. They both fall in love with Alice, a preacher’s daughter. But this is Kibera slum. So the three people in this love triangle are from different tribes. In the weeks after the 2007 presidential elections, Kibera was torn apart by fighting among tribes. This is the backdrop for the love story. In this scene Kamau and Otieno go to a rally where a charismatic politician draws them in.

WERMAN:  We can’t be lazy. We can’t be idle. We must be the [INDISCERNABLE] we want to see amongst the youth of this wonderful country.

CROSSAN: Togetherness Supreme is the latest project of Hot Sun Films. The independent film company is based in Kibera. It’s a film company and an educational foundation. Pamela Collett directs the foundation. She says that Kibera was the natural place to set up shop.

PAMELA COLLETT: We found right away that there was a wealth – an incredible untapped resource. It’s an unusual place even if you’ve been around Nairobi. It’s made up of 14 villages. People kind of jammed together in substandard living conditions but somehow making things work even without basic services. And also people from all different tribes, all different religions. So this is a fantastic wonderful place to gather stories.

CROSSAN: Hot Sun offers training to residents of Kibera. And then the trainees get hands-on experience volunteering on film productions. Kay-fah Oluoch is one of the volunteers. He helped to write the script for Togetherness Supreme. Oluoch describes the Kibera he saw in 2007.

KAY-FAH OLUOCH: Bonfires were everywhere. At night there was just fighting, fighting. Police harassing people, killing people. Beating you for fighting for what is right.

CROSSAN: It was that violence and chaos that’s recreated in Togetherness Supreme. And Pamela Collett says that even though the film is set against the backdrop of post-election violence, it’s not trying to preach.

COLLETT: We’re not sitting down saying oh you should reconcile, or oh let’s discuss this. No, we’re working together on the real life stories and creating something new.

CROSSAN: Of course, shooting a film in a slum isn’t new. Slumdog Millionaire was set in Mumbai’s slums and City of God was filmed in Rio’s favelas. Script writer Kay-fah Oluoch says that Kibera also has a lot to offer film makers.

OLUOCH:  They should look at people in Kibera as a gold mine. The question is, can they dig the gold mine.

CROSSAN: Togetherness Supreme has been shown in slums across Kenya. And it will be screened in local schools starting this week. For The World, I’m Andrea Crossan, Kibera, Kenya.

BARON: If you want to see clips from the film, we’ve posted them at TheWorld.org. Andrea’s report was funded in part by a fellowship from the International Reporting Project.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.

• The surge in Afghanistan
• BBC coverage

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JEB SHARP:  I’m Jeb Sharp and this is The World.  The change of commanders in Afghanistan does not affect U.S. commitment to the fight there.  That’s what Defense Secretary Robert Gates told reporters at the Pentagon today.  He also said overall U.S. strategy won’t change, even if the new commander might tweak it a bit.  General David Petraeus is stepping in as top U.S. commander in Afghanistan at a very delicate time.  American and NATO troops are preparing for a key offensive in Kandahar Province.  Casualties are already high now.  June has been the deadliest month for international forces since the war in Afghanistan began in 2001.  Nowhere is the violence more apparent than at the trauma ward at Kandahar Air Field.  Ben Gilbert is embedded with U.S. troops there and sends this report.  Please be aware this story contains graphic descriptions that some may find disturbing.

BEN GILBERT:  The American flags at Kandahar Air Field have flown at half mast most days this month.  That means the body of an American service member is on base waiting to be flown back to the U.S.  The 12 bed emergency trauma center here at Kandahar Air Field is in high demand.  U.S. Navy Commander Mike Mullins runs day to day operations at the hospital.  He says as more troops have been deployed into and around the Taliban spiritual heartland of Kandahar, casualties have increased.

COMMANDER MIKE MULLINS:  The last two weeks have been very busy.  We always hope for no casualties, but again, you will take care of who shows up.

GILBERT: Most patients arrive by medevac helicopter, the Army’s air ambulance that ferries wounded troops in from the field.  On a recent morning, the first soldier arrived at 8:43 a.m.  He was on a patrol searching for IED’s.  A bomb went off under his vehicle.  About 70% of troop casualties are caused by these improvised explosive devices.  The helicopter drops him off about 500 feet from the hospital.  An ambulance brings him to the door.  His leg was broken.  He’s stabilized and will be okay.  A half hour later two other soldiers arrive from the same unit. They had been securing the helicopter landing zone for the first soldier when another IED went off.  One has shrapnel to the face, the other to the neck.  It’s 9:04 a.m.  The roll the patient with the head wound inside the trauma center and get to work.  The man’s face is full of blood.  A piece of shrapnel tore open the front of his right thigh, then burrowed a quarter-sized hole into his left inner leg.  And his skull is fractured, an x-ray shows.  But the fact that he was talking and moving around when he first arrived is a good sign.  He was eventually flown to Germany and expected to survive, but also to lose his eye from the shrapnel wound.  As the team finishes working on him, Commander Mullins tells me there’s another patient on the way.

MULLINS:  We just know it got posted.

GILBERT: So its 9:40 in the morning and this is the third call of the morning?

MULLINS: Yeah, third call.  It’s an IED blast.

GILBERT: Four NATO troops in the Kandahar area were wounded by IED’s in about a two hour time frame on this day.  The next morning brings more of the same.  The hospital staff rolls three Afghan police officers in on stretchers.  They were wounded in a blast.  One policeman’s heart is not beating.  Both his legs are broken, his body is limp and pale.  The trauma team works frantically to revive him.  They cut open his chest and the doctor begins massaging the patient’s heart with his hand.  Lieutenant Colonel Rob Stiegelmar, a Canadian doctor here, says it’s called cardiac massage.

MALE VOICE 1:  You can see his hand moving, squeezing the heart directly.  So it’s more efficient CPR than pushing on the chest.  This is only done if someone loses vital signs within 10 minutes.

GILBERT: They do get the heart working again.  They try to shock him to get a steady beat.  But after 20 minutes, one of the man’s pupils is dilated.  They make the call to stop resuscitating the police officer.  The doctors declare him dead a few minutes later.  The trauma center here takes all comers, Afghan troops. U.S. service men, locals and even insurgents.  So there is little question with the build up of troops and an expected increase in violence, that the hospital staff will find themselves working at this pace for many months to come.  For The World, I’m Ben Gilbert at the Role 3 Hospital at Kandahar Air Field, Afghanistan.

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• BBC coverage
• McChrystal summoned over article
• Rolling Stone: “The Runaway General”

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JEB SHARP:  I’m Jeb Sharp.  This is The World.  President Obama has accepted the resignation of American’s Commanding General in Afghanistan, Stanley McChrystal.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA:  I did so with considerable regret.  But also with certainty that it is the right thing for our mission in Afghanistan, for our military and for our country.

SHARP: President Obama speaking in the Rose Garden of the White House this afternoon.  McChrystal’s departure follows the publication in Rolling Stone magazine of disrespectful remarks from General McChrystal and his staff about members of the administration.

PRESIDENT OBAMA:  I don’t make this decision based on any difference in policy with General McChrystal as we are in full agreement about our strategy.  Nor do I make this decision out of any sense of personal insult.  Stan McChrystal has always shown great courtesy and carried out my orders faithfully.  I’ve got great admiration for his and for his long record of service in uniform.

SHARP: But the President went on.

PRESIDENT OBAMA:  War is bigger than any one man or woman, whether a Private, a General, or a President.  As difficult as it is to lose General McChrystal, I believe that it is the right decision for our national security.  The conduct represented in the recently published article does not meet the standard that should be set by a Commanding General.  It undermines the civilian control of the military that is at the core of our democratic system and it erodes the trust that is necessary for our team to work together to achieve our objectives in Afghanistan.

SHARP: General McChrystal had been summoned back to Washington and met one on one with President Obama this morning.  He will be replaced by David Petraeus, the head of Central Command and Chrystal’s’ boss.  The scandal comes as the war in Afghanistan hangs in the balance.  Scott Wilson is White House reporter for the Washington Post.  Scott, what happened today?

SCOTT WILSON:  Well, General McChrystal arrived very early this morning from Afghanistan, met first with Secretary Gates, the Defense Secretary for about half an hour and then went to the White House for a very short 22 minute meeting with President Obama.  And at that point left the White House compound.  At that point it became pretty clear that the had been relieved of his command because there was a monthly Situation Room meeting to review Afghanistan policy and progress that he would not be attending.  That was the first indication that he was dismissed.  I think the big surprise was that David Petraeus was named as his replacement.  In some ways it’s a demotion, technically for General Petraeus in that he was overseeing Afghanistan as part of the broader Central Command.  But then again, in practical terms, this will be the second war he’s called upon to essentially turn around and will look very good on a resume of an already extremely successful General.

SHARP: On the question of General Stanley McChrystal, what was it, do you think, that really ticked off the administration in the end?

WILSON: Well, a couple things.  It exposed, first of all, the management of a war that had really gone awry.  There is one thing that this President really does not like and it is that kind of personality driven dissention that this episode really exposed.  General McChrystal not getting along at all with General Eikenberry, the Ambassador in Kabul, with Richard Holbrooke, these are big personalities fighting in really very petty ways at times.  And some of the language used in the article was extremely petty.  So it really undermined, I think, the General McChrystal’s credibility in the President’s eyes.  He didn’t think it was possible for General McChrystal to really command the respect of not only other civilian leadership, but even with the ranks of his own troops after some of the comments that were published and what that revealed about his attitude.

SHARP: Even so, the timing couldn’t be worse.  With the war in Afghanistan at a very delicate point, and allied forces poised to move against the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar, what do you think this means for the war in Afghanistan?

WILSON: Well, before General Petraeus’ choice, I think that’s why it was really an open question about whether or not President Obama would dismiss General McChrystal.  As you said, the learning curve would have been extremely high even for General McChrystal’s deputy who is a much different kind of officer; this is General Rodriguez.  But in putting Petraeus into that role, the learning curve is much less steep.  Not only has he been ostensibly overseeing a lot of the Afghanistan operation, he literally wrote the manual on counter-insurgency, has signed off on not only the strategy that was adopted last fall, but every element of it since then.  So it was not clear that David Petraeus was a choice at all heading into today and now emerging from the day it looks like there really is a lot less disruption that will probably take place as a result of his appointment.

SHARP: Scott Wilson, White House correspondent for the Washington Post, thank you very much.

WILSON: Thank you.

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• Ben Gilbert’s photos from Afghanistan
• At War blog of the NY Times
• Ben Gilbert on patrol with the 33rd Cavalry in Paktia

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MARCO WERMAN:  I’m Marco Werman and this is The World, a co-production of the BBC World Service, PRI and WGBH Boston.  A national peace conference is set to open tomorrow in Afghanistan.  Delegates will discuss how to reconcile with fighters from the Taliban.  The Taliban, however, aren’t attending.  They say they won’t talk with the Afghan government until all foreign troops leave Afghan’s soil.  Meanwhile, many Afghans feel stuck between the Taliban and the U.S. led NATO force and its Afghan government allies.  Ben Gilbert is embedded with the First Battalion, 33rd Cavalry Regiment, in eastern Afghanistan.  He sent us this report.

BEN GILBERT:  Last Wednesday the Taliban ambushed U.S. Army Lieutenant Joe Witcher’s First Platoon, Bravo Troop, as they soldiers left a small village called Haqi Kalay.  Witcher says it wasn’t much of a surprise, the area is strongly suspected of being a staging ground for insurgents.

LIEUTENANT JOE WITCHER:  We do have reports that groups of 10 to 15 have been coming to most of these villages.  About three weeks ago at the shrual, our local government meeting, none of the elders showed up and from a second hand source we were told the Taliban have pretty much said if you attend local government meetings we’ll kill you.

GILBERT: The Taliban followed through on those threats in a neighboring district last week.  They killed six elders, refused to cooperate.  Even though no Afghans or Americans were hurt in last week’s Haqi Kalay ambush, Bravo Troop wanted to confront village elders from the area.  U.S. troops met with the local shrual, basically the Afghan equivalent of a city council meeting.  Captain Jarrod Glasenapp, Bravo Troop’s commander, planned to mention the murder of the elders and he also wanted some answers.  Glasenapp says the elders need to stand up to the Taliban and side with the Afghan government.  Even though he knows it’s hard for the U.S. military, or Afghan Army to back them up right now.  The Americans move inside.  The Afghan elders sit on large pillow cushions lining the walls.  The Americans sit opposite them.  Lieutenant Witcher begins.

WITCHER:  Are you guys aware that U.S. and ANA got attacked just three days ago outside of Haqi Kalay?

GILBERT: Witcher tells the elders his men were attacked in the same area where he had planned to get money for constructing new roads.

WITCHER:  And the attack, the mountain we got attacked from, the – - soldiers go on it to clear it from enemy personnel, there was a house on the backside, so I know at least in the Haqi Kalay area, the villagers know when the enemy comes through their town.

GILBERT: Captain Glasenapp threatens to stop the development projects in the district unless the local people start tipping him off about the perpetrators of the attacks.  The elders are silent and stone faced.  After the meeting, the Americans take aside two men, who they suspect of having ties to the Taliban.  As the men are being questioned, one of the senior elders, Haji Meeaykeehah, responds defensively to a reporter’s questions.

MALE VOICE 1:  I just wanted to ask you guys what you thought of what the Americans said to day about coming to them and telling them about any insurgents, or Taliban, or fighters here in your area.  How comfortable are you with that?

INTERPRETER:  Seems like he doesn’t have information about insurgents guys.

GILBERT: Later, the interpreter says the U.S. military detained Haji Meeaykeehah for four months last year and that his cousin is in Pakistan and is a big player in the insurgency.  Lieutenant Colonel Steve Lutsky, commander of the American cavalry squadron here, says about 15% of the area under his command is too dangerous to enter.  But he says security in this area has improved over the last three years.  That’s partly because of focus.  In the past, the U.S. was concerned mainly with the key road that runs through the area called the KG pass.

LT. COL. STEVE LUTSKY:  Our predecessors focused purely on the road and didn’t go into the villages.  We are increasing the bubble five, ten, fifteen kilometers off of the KG pass road, which is having us go into those villages.  And as they start to build trust in us, they’re going to report and they’re going to join together and they’re going to say to the Taliban you’re not coming to this village.

GILBERT: But many more troops, whether they be Afghan or American, are still needed to provide security before that happens.  Colonel Lutsky says many locals are hedging their bets.  He says it’s not unusual for some Afghan families to have members who are part of the government, and others who work with the Taliban.  Bravo Troop was hedging their bets as well on Sunday.  In his headquarters, Bravo Troop’s Captain Glasenapp talked about working with local leaders and bringing Afghan government presence to the district.  A hundred feet away his soldiers practiced ambush drills in the base’s helicopter landing zone.  It’s preparation they will almost certainly need in the months ahead.  For The World, I’m Ben Gilbert with the First Squadron, 33rd Cavalry Regiment at Camp Clark, eastern Afghanistan.

WERMAN: You can see pictures of the meeting of the village elders at the world dot org.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.

Chester Thompson, known as 'Sgt. T' (photo: Ben Gilbert)

The American military death toll in Afghanistan has reached 1,000 and the number of US troops in Afghanistan has now surpassed the total in Iraq. The grim milestone comes midway between President Obama’s decision last December to send 30,000 more American troops to Afghanistan and a progress report on the war that he has promised by the end of the year. Reporter Ben Gilbert is embedded with an Army unit currently deployed in Eastern Afghanistan. (photo: Ben Gilbert)

• Ben Gilbert’s photos from Afghanistan
• At War blog of the NY Times
• Ben Gilbert on joint patrols in Iraq (March)

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This text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

MARCO WERMAN:  I’m Marco Werman and this is The World.  U.S. troops in Afghanistan reached a grim milestone today.  The number of American military deaths in the country reached 1,000.  The latest fatality was the result of a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan.  The first U.S. combat death in the Afghan war came back in 2002 in eastern Afghanistan.  That’s where The World’s Ben Gilbert is right now embedded with an Army unit in Paktia Province.

BEN GILBERT:  The 101st Airborne’s Bravo Troop, First Squadron, 33rd Cavalry Regiment live and work on a small forward operating base called Wilderness.  It’s nestled in a mountain pass on a strategic road near Afghanistan’s poorest border with Pakistan.  The winter here was pretty quiet, but now winter’s over.  This week the Taliban executed eight Afghan elders who dared challenge them.  They also hit camp Wilderness with 12 rockets.  They were fired from a village called Haqi Kalay, a town with suspected links to the Taliban affiliated Haqqani network.  Lieutenant Joe Witcher leads a group of 19 soldiers to Haqi Kalay.  The dirt road is rough and rudded.  The vehicles snake slowly through the washed out valleys and climb steep embankments.  There’s basically only one way into the village and one way out which makes it perfect for an ambush.

LIEUTENANT JOE WITCHER:  Hey T, it should be the next hilltop once we get behind this one.

GILBERT: The American spends two hours looking for the rocket launch site.  Afterwards, they come back through Haqi Kalay.  A crowd of young men sit in a long row under the shade of one building unsmiling and staring.  The Americans begin the trip back home and within five minutes, the troops are ambushed on an exposed part of the dirt road.  Sergeant E. Daniel Witherspoon, the gunner on one truck sees muzzle flashes from a ridge to our right.  The American trucks return fire from mounted machine guns and grenade launchers.  Explosions rip into the dirt below the trucks.  The insurgents are firing rocket propelled grenades.  Then, the Afghan soldiers jump out of the pick up truck in front of us and run for cover behind a small hill blocking the convoy.  Sergeant Chester Thompson yells for them to get back in so the six vehicle convoy can move forward.  Eleven minutes into the attack, a trooper named Sergeant Robert Kramm gets out of his truck, under fire, and herds the Afghans back into their truck.  The convoy moves down the hill and out of the line of fire.  The soldiers call for air support and artillery.  Soon, two apache helicopters show up, but it’s not over.  A trail of smoke arcs toward one, apparently someone shot an RPG at the helicopter and narrowly missed it.  Later, the platoon commander, Lt. Joe Witcher, leads a group of soldiers up across the valley into the ridgeline from where the ambush originated.  All they find is bullet casings.  The people who shot at them are long gone.  The troops hike back to their trucks and head back to the base.  Lt. Witcher.

LT. WITCHER:  I’m not going to line, we always kind of say we are waiting for it, but I wasn’t expecting it today.  But like we were talking about, it has definitely; the area has definitely switched to game on in the last week, week and a half.

GILBERT: Back at the unit’s headquarters at Camp Wilderness, the troops inspect their vehicles for damage.  The first armored truck in the convoy took eight shots, with five of them striking the turret gunner’s shield a few vital inches from 27-year-old private first class Jacob Veith’s body.  Veith was a cop for two years in the suburbs outside Kansas City before joining the Army.  This is his first time in combat.

PFC JACOB VEITH:  That was pretty amazing.  Gets your blood pumping, you know?  I mean I was a cop for three years, been in the Army for little over a year now, and probably had more excitement here than I ever had back on the street.

GILBERT: No one was hurt in the fire fight, but this is a deadly serious game, especially now.  B Troop’s commander, Captain Jarrad Glasenapp says that this fire fight showed that the fighting season has kicked off.  He also says it shows that the Afghan Army still isn’t quite up to the job.  But this job isn’t easy for anyone.  The last time this unit was able to make it to Haqi Kalay was two and a half weeks ago.  Without more U.S. or Afghan troops in this area to secure these small villages, the insurgents can blend in with locals in villages and pretty much move freely across the remote, rugged territory.  Glasenapp says his troop’s mission will be to move into those areas and try to bring Afghan troops and government services to the villages.  For The World, I’m Ben Gilbert at Camp Wilderness, Paktia Province, Afghanistan.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.