walk down the stairs. And we would sit in front of the heater and talk about our plans for when we got home, plans that he will never have the chance to fulfill.

PALMER: As the war in Iraq enters its fourth year, America's armed forces are stretched to the limit.

MCKENZIE: I think it's safe to say that any infantry battalion in the Marine corps is going to be coming into Iraq, at least in the near term.

Staff Sergeant Marino is pretty sure he'll be sent back to Iraq. He's making a career in the corps, and from his perspective, after two tours in Iraq, the BLT made progress.

MARINO: We are looking in the right direction through the elections, through way higher than Staff Sergeant Marino and his Marines,these guys what, on a lonely road?

PARENTI: In a canyon not far from Kandahar in Zabul province. Just off the road, the main road between Kabul and Kandahar, my translator and I managed to hook up with a group of Taliban fighters. The Taliban mostly operate in groups of five or six, and then they come together maybe up to 50 fighters at a time, to do stuff like they did the other day, attack a U.S. base. And they're pretty clearly... according to these guys and then a Taliban spokesperson I spoke with, this western spy, and some Afghan intelligence people, the Taliban is run out of Pakistan with the support of the Pakistani state. They have sort of three main fronts that they operate out of.