hospital, shocked to see hur grandchild. >> my dare grandchild she's saying, where were you? my beloved, dear god. adnan is badly wounded in the side of his chest. you can see him still struggling to breathe. we're not going to show you the actual wounds on his body, they are open holes. his lips are pale from lack of oxygen. the medic you see tries cpr. at some point it becomes clear nothing can be done to save this little boy's life. in a real hospital, it might be different. not here not in the city of homs. all anyone can do is wait for this little boy to die. afterwards, all his father can do is hold his dead child. drowned out by the sound of nearby shelling, the father is saying, my baby, i'll avenge your death. he's asking, what did you do? who did you hurt? what did this little one do? we debated whether or not to show you this video. we admit, it is sickening to watch and there's no denying that. that is just what any assad regime is doing, flat out denying it that artillery crews are pounding civilian neighborhoods in that city and leveling apartment builds until the improvised hospitals and makeshift morgues fill up with men and children like that little boy, adnan, which is why we are showing you his story tonight so the people who erased his life cannot also erase the truth. as we said, a reporter was in the room when the child died. marie colvin of the times of london who joins us now from homs. to be in that room with this young baby passing, we've seen many children killed in this conflict, to be there, what was that like? >> it's a very chaotic room. but the baby's death was just heartbreaking. possibly because he was so quiet. one of the first was that the grandmother who had been helping completely coincidentally helping in the emergency room and shouting, that's my grandson. where did you find him? the dwrr said there's nothing we can do. we watched this little boy, his little tummy heaving and heaving as he tried to breathe. it was horrific. my heart broke. >> do we know how the child died? how he was wounded? >> we know -- there's been constant shelling in the city. i have to say, it's one of many stories. his house was hit by a shell. he -- another member of his family -- it's chaos here. another member of his family arrived later but after he had died. and said the,000 had been -- the second floor had been hit. this little boy obviously was one piece of shrapnel that caught him right in the chest. >> there are some who will see those images and say we shouldn't show those images, that it's too much. we discuss this all the time. why is it important, do you think, to see these images? why is it important for you to be there? you may be one of the only western journalists in homs. our team has just left. >> yes. i had a discussion with your people, anderson. i feel very strongly they should be shown. something like that, i think, is actually stronger for an audien audience -- for someone who is not here, for an audience for which the conflict, any conflict is very far away. that's the reality. these are 28,000 civilians, men, women and children, hiding, being shelled defenseless. that little baby was one of two children who died today, one of children being injured everyday. that baby probably will move more people to think, what is going on and why is no one stopping this murder in homs that is happening everyday? >> the regime in syria, claims they're not hitting civilians, that there is no armed conflict, no war in syria, going after terrorist gangs. >> every civilian house has been hit. we're talking a poor neighborhood. the top floor of the building i'm in has been hit, in fact, totally destroyed. there are no military targets here. there is the free syrian army. heavily out-numbered and out-gun ed and rocket propelled grenades. they don't have a base. there are a lot of young men killed, teenaged, and trying to get the wounded to some kind of medical treatment. it's a complete and utter lie they're only going after terrorists. there are rockets, tank shells, anti-aircraft being fired in parallel lines into the city. the syrian army is shelling the scity of cold starving civilian. >> thank you for using the word "lie." i think a lot of people will thank you. it's a word we often hear, not often used, the truth in this case. the syrian regime and their representatives have continued to lie and lied on this program directly. you have covered a lot of conflicts for a long time. how does this compare? >> this is the worst, anderson, for many reasons, i think the last time we talked when i was in misurata. it's partly personal safety, i guess, there's nowhere to run. the syrian army is holding the perimeter. there's far more ordinance being poured into this city and no way of predicting where it's going to land. plus, there's a lot of snipers on the high builds surrounding the neighborhood. i can sort of figure out where a sniper is but you can't figure out where a shell is going to land. just the terror of the people and the helpless neness of thes families hiding on the first floor. all they can do is hope it doesn't hit them. that's very very difficult to watch. >> in terms of supplies, medicine, food? >> running low. medicine, there is essentially almost none. the only painkillers at let hospital are normal painkillers we would use for a cold or something or headache. there's operations going on with just that as anesthetics because the hospitals here, anyone who is shot or has a shrapnel wound is arrested or disappeared so fears they're being killed and anyone badly wounded is smuggled across to lebanon. they don't even have rubber gloves. the rubber gloves the doctors at the medical staff is wearing, the rubber gloves are ripped. one doctor, one dentist and a vet treating the wounded. that's the kind of medical care there is. >> marie colvin. i know it's impossible to stay safe, but please try. thank you for talking to us. >> thanks very much, anderson. >> i want to bring in a senior fellow from stanford university's hoover institution, just returned from turkey. everyday we say 100 people died today and 30 people died today and you become number to it, and numbers and something like this shows you reality for people in homs right now. >> that's exactly right. numbers is a friend of the dictator and criminal and killer regime. this has become -- you've done homs justice. this is basically now sarajevo. we're watching the death of a city. i was in turkey with these exiled leaders, the best of the best including, i have to say, the secretary general of the muslim brothers of syria, and a number of doctors and academics and so on. they are watching with puzzlement and wonder at the indifference of the world. they wonder about washington and they wonder about president obama. they wonder about the futility of diplomacy. this coming friday, the so-called friends of syria, this group of nations that are trying to figure out what to do, are meet meeting in tunisia. but the friends of syria are not doing much. but the friends of the syrian regime are doing a lot. hezbollah, russia. they seem more committed but the democracies seem passive. >> i worked there in the early '90s. for years, people would come up on the street and after a while people became annoyed at reporters there, saying how many more deaths do you need to show in order for somebody to do something. >> you're right. or the sar rajevo calendar, the killers had no assets whatsoever. we discovered it was all a bluff. here in homs, we are really now just about closing in nearly on a year, so if we are to wait by the sarajevo calendar, we have 18 more months of bloodshed. >> we heard from some in the military in the united states say, look, we don't have a full picture of who the opposition is inside syria, reports of al qaeda involvement and suicide attacks. the idea of arming the opposition may not be an option. >> that's the abdication to say, we don't know what's out there. i will tell you what's out there, one worth reciting. there's a city in syria, crucial city, the second scene of the rebellion in syria. i met with him on the out-skirts of istanbul. what we get from these people is the fact that this is a rebellion of young protesters, this particular sheikh and cleric was actually led into the protest and rebellion by young people who said to him, we're being killed, we're being slaughtered our future is being lost and we call on you to do your duty and even the leader of islam talks about a fleuralist societfleuralist -- pluralist society. and then they say we don't know what this is made of in the opposition. >> you say the muslim brotherhood, they say, look, we saw that in egypt of english speaking revolutionaries talking about democracy and lo and behold the muslim brotherhood gains power and another group gains power, syria is a very complex mix. >> absolutely. you look at the city and tragedy, the city and people are not helped by the examples of what happened in iraq, by example of what happened in egypt although i think it really isn't as bleak in egypt as we like to think and what happened in libya. we do have an argument in washington, actually, made by our president, either boots on the ground, that's the way i would describe it, or head in the sand. we either have a full-scale invasion or we simply do nothing. there's a lot we can do. the turks are standing by. the arabs would finance a campaign in syria. it requires american leadership. this is what it requires. i think president obama has been very clear he does not intend to do much about syria. he may be dragged into it. the slaughter may drag him into it, so we better choose our own timing and our own means rather than waiting for the calamities to make our decisions. >> there was some on this program last night talked about the possibility of safe haven area in the north that turkey would oversee because the turkish military has the capabilities. >> absolutely. that's, by the way, the syrian regime has not been brutal. the turks have always been inve invested culturally and economically and the syrian regime is keen not to offend the turks or bring them into the fight. the turks could do a lot for homs and the turks could do enormous amount of good for the syrians. they need again a green light from the united states, where we are once again in that land where we say america is the indispenseable nation. if we don't do it, it won't get done. >> there are so many countries around there with different interests inside syria and willing to send weapons inside syria, this could become a larger even more complex -- >> absolutely. the borders of syria have been used for alibi for inaction. i would contend the borders of syria, the fact iraq is there, lebanon is there, jordan is there, israel is on the border, that actually makes the case for doing something drastic about syria. we have to step in and help them less syria become radicalized. believe me, the pattern is clear, we can come in early and rescue the syrians and rescue the liberals and embolden them and safe-keep them or leave to it chaos and we will have a more radical syria. we will pay a price for this. this is what strategy is about. we can say syria doesn't matter. this is what our leaders owe us, need to tell us what the consequences are. when you have 0 someone like general dempsey, he in fact tells bashar, we're not coming. it's a favor we don't owe the dictator. he has already surmised that. >> let me know what you think on facebook, google plus or follow me on twitter. @anderson cooper is the address. tomorrow, the republican debate and newt gingrich and new polling tonight and ron paul, new polling tonight and new comfort for romney. also tonight, how can a judge take a little girl from her adocht ed parents even though te parents did nothing wrong? a federal law that landed a 2-year-old in this middle of a custody battle and put her in the care of a man she's never met before. a lot of different sides to this. we'll explore it ahead. if there was a pill to help protect your eye health as you age... would you take it? well, there is. 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[ male announcer ] learn more from your state farm agent today. you are one lwhoa.lady. mm-hmm. whoa. how do you top great vacations? whoa. getting twice the points on great vacations. whoa! use chase sapphire preferred and now get two times the points on travel, and two times the points on dining and no foreign transaction fees. whoa! chase sapphire preferred. a card of a different color. apply now at chasesapphire.com/preferred the republican debate many are calling make or break takes place tomorrow night in mesa, arizona, six days before the arizona and michigan primaries. newt gingrich is trying to regain his street cred and mitt romney who says he loves cars, a bumpy road for him in michigan and arizona. polling shows rick santorum, who hadn't even planned to contest this state, now within four points of governor romney. we talk to democratic strategist and gop strategist, rich galen. >> you look at the arizona poll, romney has a four point edge. that's a statistical tie with santorum. does that surprise you? >> no, it doesn't surprise me. i think you're seeing a pattern here develop. actually, when you get inside the cnn time or poll, it actually explains to some of our viewers, you know, what's going on at the micropolitical level. i think sometimes our viewers see what's happening in politics and scratch their head and say, why are they doing that? what's going on? you look at it internally, the born again religious gap with the born agains breaking 9.4 for santorum, however, romney running away with the non-born agains and the problem for santorum is he's really splitting the born again vote with newt gingrich getting 21% of the born again vote so he has to drive that very religious vote you see. a lot of times when we see this, why is rick santorum moving so hard on religion right now, i think from a micropolitical standpoint, you understand that when you get inside the numbers, that he has to coalesce and earn this very born again vote. if he does that, it becomes very problematic for mitt romney. >> it does seem in michigan, romney is starting to rise again, maybe santorum has plateau'd. in arizona, he wasn't planning to contest that state. >> well, as cornell was just saying, when you look at what we call the crosstabs, the other place cornell, where there's a fairly dramatic gap and one of the few in this poll, one of the few for this crosstab is in the n non-born again. the neutral republicans, romney has a 15 point lead there, so, again, not just that santorum needs to swing to his base, he needs to get them to swing back to him, too. in michigan, anderson, santorum has gone from about plus 12 or 15 to the real clear politics average for the two polls that have been released in t the -- four polls in the last 72 hours is about 1.5 percentage points. these things are very close. as we all know, you don't have to win an election a week ahead of the election, you have to win it on election day. >> cornell, in terms of president obama. his own super pac raised less than $59,000 last month, before he reversed himself and said it was going to send out surrogates and help raise money for the super pac. $50,000 of that was from a single donor. how big a cause for concern is that? >> i think -- i talk about on this show, i think the decision to allow this sort of unfiltered money in the system is dangerous to democracy, where you have these large donors can write big checks. clearly democrats are behind here because we had a distaste for this. at the same time, we realize we cannot yunyyuny -- unilaterally disarm and allow the republicans to own this. and i think republicans are getting their arms twisted probably almost daily from fund raisers because their contest is so contested. democrats haven't started to do that yet because we haven't had to do that. i have a feeling we will be able to raise money. less than 60 bucks, it's a nice contrast when you see that small donor average american donation to the campaign versus, you know, these $5 million checks being written to the super pacs i think are ridiculous. >> rich, do you have any doubt some $5 million checks are about to be written to democrats. >> before republicans do the dance of joy, they ought to look at the fact that the super pacs -- the obama's campaign did not ask for or want super pac money until about three or four weeks ago so they haven't really ramped up to that yet. there will be people. the hollywood crowd is always there stlch there. they're good for how many millions they will write for. frankly, it's easier for them and other big donors to write one single check and guest it out of the way than it is to have to bundle a bunch of $2500 checks from their friends. >> are you guys as interested in the debate as i am? i think it will be fascinating. >> it's on cnn, i'm supposed to say yes. >> you're done with debates? tired of them? >> i think people have made decisions with all these debates. the danger is for -- i think santorum can coalesce that religious right base, he has th that. romney has to try to again sort of get in the way of him coalescing that debate, in the debate. interesting about the base is that gingrich has sort of fallen back and it will be interesting, if i'm at the gingrich camp, i'm saying to my candidate, you've got to get back in this and you have to hit a home run. to me, in this debate, the pressure isn't so much on santorum and romney as it is on newt because he's got to have a big play to get back in this thing. >> right. santorum certainly wants nothing more than to keep gingrich out of this thing. we have to leave it there. i appreciate you being on. reminder, watch tomorrow night's big debate, moderated by john king, 8:00 eastern time followedby a special edition of "360" after the debate. 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