>>tonight on "worldfocus" -- ter mnths of deliberation, the prident announces a plan to add mor an 30,000 troops tory to wi the war in afghanistan. will isucceed? it won't jus be a military surge. it will be a civilian surge as well. 'll show you how state departme emplees train for their deployment, learning too it the afghan y. >> on this wld aids day, we'll travel to south rica where the governmentas announced w measures to try to curb the scourge. anwe'll take you to nepal fo a rare glise inside mt. everest, a gre meltdown is unr way. from the world's leading tu reporters ananalysts, here's what happening from around the world. is is "worldfocus." mar support has been provided by rosalind p. walter and the peter g. petson foundation, dedicateto promoting fiscal responsility and addrsing key economic challenges facing america' future. and additional fundings provided by thfollowing supporters -- good evening. i'm david brancaccio. daljit dhalil is off. we're going to start tonight with a in depth look at what may be a defining dcision for bara obama'spresidency, his plan f the next ase of the war afghanistan. thpresident is ording the deployment of some 30,0 additional troops but also planning to star bringing them home by theiddle of 2011, about a yr and a half from now. over the last two days, the president briefed keyforeign leaders, members of congress and held a video conrence with the afghan president, hamid karzai. the escalationill bring the american troop presee in afghanistan to more than100,000 in the xt six months and will largely ve the american commander geral stanley cchrystal, the big surge that he wanted. intonight's "lead focus," we look at the goaland strategy fowhat has clearly now become obama's w. beginning with james bays of al jazeera english. >> reporter: it's now three mohs since the u.s. and nato commander, genal stanley cchrystal, sent hisleak assessmento the situation on the ground to hi coanders at the pentagon. the general's strategy is clear. focus onthefghan population, d that mansconcentrating resourceon otecting the cities rather than fighting battles in rural areas whe the taliba is strong. priority number one i the mcchrystal plan -- afghanian's second city ndahar. a place whe the population of about ha a million, it's key to control of the sth of afghanistan. itsymbolic, too. the building of this unfinished mosq right in the center of the ty was ordered by mullah omar, a reminde of the situion before001 when this city wasis home and the taliban's de factocapital. more than ght years on and western miliry coanders know taliba influence has been growing, particurly here in the north of the ci, where some aeas are now no-go zones for the afghan police and army. a small canadian military force is stationed inside the city, and the u.s specia forces are in a fortied base called camp geckclose to the part of the city where the taliban have be gaining ground. the largest numberf nat troopsn the province are based 17 kilometers outse the city at t giant kaahar airfield, but mcchrystal doesn't intend to send manmore troops intohe city itself. instead, he'll put his forces in a ring around kandahar city concentrating on nearby aas like agnadaband panjwayi where the taliban are strong. other key piorities for mcchryal, the city of khost and the surrounding provinces. here americaaces fighte like ese under the command of jauddin haqqani, who are known to have close links with al qaeda. troo will be sent, too, to the north, particularlyo kunduz wherthealiban re-emergence over the last year has wed the generals some extra forces wi be sent to helmandalthough commanders are disappoied by progress here, an arewhereorces were doled over the summer in an effort to disrupt the taliban that manyelieve has largely failed. mcchrystal wantso use any additional troops to shore u the dozenlargest population centers in afghanistan, cities like herat, mazar-sharif a e capital ka bull. he must balance all these plans with the need to usa significant number of hi troops train, mentor andead in battle afghanistan's er army and polic when he submitted his asessment this summer, general mcchrystal said he believedhe only had2 months to cnge theortunes of the internatial forces in this countr however, his new sttegy is a high rsk one concentrating on the cities and urban areas is wh the russians tried before they left th country in defe. james bays, al jazeera, kabul. or much morebout all this, we're joinedonce again tonight by one of our regulars, thony rdesman, ted national securit analyst. he's with the center for strategic d internatnalstudies d joins us omheir tonight. mr. cordean, thanks for ining us. >> easure. >> the psident is sendin what, about9,000 marines in next couple of months to southern afghanistan. whthere i particar? >> that is o of the mn areas of ccentration from the liban. it is an area whic is dply threatened the itish, which hld helmand are outnumbered, and the canadians, which hd the crical province andity of kandaharo the southeast, also doot have the strength to hold ose areas androvide the kd protection the population needs. >> what's your exptation when the mrines first get there? first couple of months, what will they face?uñ >> youave to understand the marines are already there. they're in helmand province. there are troops ready inside kandahar so what we're dng is we're buildi up strength. the marines are part of some 30,000 troops, which wil include ar forces. it will be there in the nt six to eight mons. and weeally have never hadthe troop strength befre to both conduct taccal operations and secure the populated areas. the taliban hasbeen able to take over as much because there really hast been any resistances because of their strength. >> do you foresee some nd of set bates between american forcesnd the taliban fighters? or is is goingto be mre guerrilla warfare? >> it's usually a combination o both. they tryo haveclashes, inflict casualti, get sort of a negative headline or a spin in the west fro the caualties, then ty disperse, then they use improvise explosive devices, not in classi guerrilla warfare. theyrefer a rote use of mbs and mines and detonatis. but en they infiltra back in or they try to inltrate back in. so this is aduel that takes me. in the press, you have to protect the population, give it security on more lasting bas and bring back afghan governance and some kind of economic hope for the people in thearea. >> and i suppose protect our own troops is there likely to be -- should prepare for a grea increase in american troop casualties? >>hereertainly will be a significant inease in casualties. have toemember up to this pointhose casualties have been tremely low. eachne is a tragy. but istorical standards or even by iraq standards,he casualties have been very, very minimum. in part becau a year ago we had something like 34,000 troops. now we have 6800 plus and with the president's announcement, we'll have something like 100,000. >> now, theresident is focusi on an exit strategy. there are critic who sayhat will only encourage the tally baen towait u.s. forces out then launch a later offenve. is that on of yo wore es? >> i think it is frankly st a matter of misundetanding of semantics. e president has looked at the riskof his. ther are no certn tis of viory. he's looking at what will it take for e united states to eventually leave but his strategy dsn't just put u.s. troops inthere for a while. it calls for doubling the afghan my and having a major chae to create a force tt can stand on its own. you're going to me major increases in the police and try to improve the justice syste you're shiing the aid process, so you have aid ing directly to the afghans at the local district and provinciallevel, and you're putting aid through the centragovernment only where younow it's relatively honest. you're calling for more effort from o allies, not so much in nuers -- >> right. >> -- but unity of fort. so these a all major changes that prepe afghanistan fst to defeat ts enemy and second to be able to hold with only a very limited outside psence. all right. anthony cordesman, thankou very much. >> thank you. you might not haveealized it, but there's another americ surge under way in afghanistan this one involves civilians whose ranks will have gone from the low hundreds at the begin of this yearo almost a thousand by the sta of ne year. we have a fascinating inside look at how they're bng trained. sah smith ofitn wt to a place that look andfeels like afghanistan, but it's right in america's heartlan >> reporter: at this supposed afghan power staon, the americans are arning to tackle the kind of corruption that's all too common. the ca is bei stolen or the managersharge for electricity that's meant to be prided free. the afgh government simply isn't capable of prenting this sort of problem. so america hasto find a way to help them as well as pressurg them. ashe u.n. are removing half of their civilian staff, the volunteers wilhave to fill the void in afgnistan. 's exactly the kindof work bush ainistration fused to as they were determined to avoid nati buding. >> they argued that themall footprint, low profile apoach to nion building would much beer. >> reporte they say it takes three cups of tea to g ything done in afghanistan. americans say sit, stay and sit long as nessary. but theylso need to learn to shape a diffent future if ey're ever going to leave. provisiol governors are being ught out who may make more effective partners tn the government that is so corrupt the u.s. ambaador has warned against sending any more troops until presidentarzai clea up his adminiration. >> the us. governme and the afghanista governmt have responbility and a partnership to reduce tensions and conflic >> reporter: buthis is not afghanistan. it's an army base in the mide of indiana. these ste departme civians, soon to be deployed, are rehrsing their role, trying to reduce corruptioand tackling t problems the afghan government can't or won't. >> we tend to take the american approach to problem sving and that doesn't necessarily work a well in afghanistan. so i tnk we do have to teach people who come from reaucracies that, you know, we have to go back to theuman element. reporter: these people are t soldier, not seens occupiers, but because ty have to wear helmetsnd flack jackets, they do lookn awful lot like them. you can't have a civilianurge unlessou also have a very large mitary escort. because while tese peoplemight beble to bring somemeasure of security toarts of afghanista first they have to train for a violent insurgcy. [ yelling ]yz under a simulate rocket atck, the americans are trained to ap into their humvees a get out of the. the localovernor iseft to ndor himself. >> you left t vernor. that ttack. >> we left the governor? >> you lt the governor here. >> reporter: no maer how many soldiers are sent,he u.s. knows itan't eradicate the taliban. instead the vice is to use an increased civilian prence to try to w the supportf the peop who currently belie the taliban n look aftethem better thakarzai's discredited government in kabul. sarahsmith, channe 4 news, muscatatuck urban training center in india. there was sometrong new criticism today of that vote in switzerld to ban the constructi of minaretsthe tors often constructed as par of mosques. it camfrom the u.n. high commissioner for human rights. she condemned it a part of wave of anti-foreigner scare mongering going on in number of countries. she called it discriminatory, deeply divisive and an unfortunat step for switzerland to take. this item from cuba, internet blogs that have beme important vehicle for people to make the voices heard in at communist untry. one of t newest w started by th romanatholic chur. it's called believing in cuba and is described by the church as a meeting place for those who live, dream, work and hope in cu and the cuban community overseas. thchurch said it's intended to be apolitical, a place for suggestions, not complnts. on this world aids day,he government of south aica announced major shift in how it deals with the disease. president jacob zuma compared the lengthy battle against aids with the lo struggle against apartheid. for onthing, south africa wil broaden treatment for babiesand pregnant women. in aountry of about 50 million people, more than 5 million ar ling with hiv. and tonight,we want to sh you the dastating imct of aids on one famy. haru mutasa al jazeera english has thr story from a townip outside of capetown. >> reporter: ficia mfama says she's struggling t cope. she lost children to ais. theburden of oking after the family has fallen her. her dai routines predtable. pick up t two youngest, likhona and lisakhanya fro rsery school. when s gets home she worries how she's going to feed 14 grandchildren on 350 u.s. dollars a month. >> please, god can help me. i wt to look after the children. but it's too small. >> reporter: this is e only photograph she h of one of h sons she doesn't knowow she'll cope. >> theygot no mother, they t no father. and me now, i st feed my chilen. >> rorter: it's a somber trip to her grandson'grave. at just 2ears old he was the lile to diefrom an illness that shattered thefamily. there are more peopl lving with hiv in southfrica than any her country in the world. that's an estimed 5.5 millipeop. if more isn't done to fight this epidem, many more will die. aids activists ble former south africa presidethabo mbeki for thisneedless waste of life. mbekienied the nk betwe hiv d aid s admintration didn't make antiretrovirals to those who needed them untilate in his pridency. drugs us to improve the mune system of ose living with hiv and aids. >> andalso the shortag of antivira. now most ofhe people will die becae there we no. president presidentacob zum ha has promisedo correct the steps of the pas a promise the administrati mu keep i these children hope to escape the burden of this debilitating disease. ru mutasa, al jazeera, africa. on this world aidsday, we thought was worth taking a look at the global aids picture. the uned nations rently released its 2009 ai epidic update. it has some encouragin news. last year, 2008, the report estimate2 million people wereewly infected withhiv, but that is downome 30% from the pidemic's peakack in 1996. e number of people living wth aids continue to rise. it's now more than million. one reon for that increase i the new drug theraps. ill, the number of deaths due to as mains stubbornly high. about 2 million a year. it's about where it's been over the st five ears. for moren the global aids ouook we're joined by bertil lindblad, the dictor of the u.n. aids office here in new york. thanks for joiningus. thank you. >> n, the report talks about new ai medicines at are helpingeople to live loger. are there still newered since that areoming online that could help eend people's lis? >> the iortant point ishat the are now about 42% of pele in needof antiretviral treatment that do receive treatment. and that also is the reason why we have the largestumber of people living with hiv than ever before, 33.4 miion, due to the fact tha we have more people on treatment. however, it's also important to know that almost half of those who need antetroviral medicines stl do not receive th. so that's on reason why -- >> where mig those people be concentrated? what regions of e wrld are people not getting the aids treatment at they need? >>hat figure is obal. there maye people en in a country ke russia who need treaent that do not receive it for several asons, but the fact remains at sub-saharan rica remainshe rdest hit region in the world with over 20 million people living with hiv. th there are advances now, thankstoncreased availability ofv treatment. >> no south africa used t be place that was accused dragging its feet in th fight against hiv/aids. >> right. >> but they've made enorms progress. an announcement just the other day suggesting a new way of getting aids medicines to vry young uth african chilen. is that a positivestep? >> it's an inredible developmen in fact, it was president zuma himself in south africat the end of october gav a maj speech announcing that on world aids y, which day, he would call a major rally in pretoria. and this has jus happene hours ago, and our executive director was there. in ft, he announced fu package of measures for south africa foroth hiv prevention d treatment, and thisis quite significant ven the political role thatouth africa play not ly inut in the wold. >> now, briefly, there are reports th the unid states, u.s. ofcials may be changing their sategy toward how the u.s. encourages the fight against aids overseas. moving to sustainable health system that is significant? >> that is significant. what we need to get home as a message is we need toake aids out of isolation that doesn'tean that we do less. however, to link hifb preventn to, for example, programs for tuberculosis. there's a great correlation between hiv and tb infeion, foexample. and that health systemsre full intrated in terms of hiv prevention, eatment and care. so theyall go ogether. this is the route to take, bu it's a comprensive package. >> mr.lindblad, thank yo very much. >> thankou. >> one more te about sou africa. the united statesill provide $120 million for aids drugs in that country in the next two years. > that brings us to tonight's question. do you think the u.s. is doing enough to support the fit against aids in the developing world? you can te us what you think by ging to the "how yousee it" send of our website. that's at worldfoc.org. finallytonight, with the start of the copenhagen sumit on climate changjust sixays away, we're gointo take you to a rt of the world that will bring into focus t uency of those lks. mt.verest in nepal, where james mates of itn shows u what isappening to the glaciers. >> rorter: the mt. evest, as gh and bleak and as cold a regions you willind anywhere on rth. it seems impossible that here of all places the ice fren on to the slopes of these giants could be melting. buthis is the biggest glacier n nepal in the shadow of!á everest. s surface is scarred with lakes and mlt water. and tis is the himalayan winter. pictures like the show why people in china and indi worry about where inhe future the freswater will me from. >> by the mddle of this sen century, i tnk there will be a big lake here. noore ice left. reporter: glaciologist doug benn has been studying t glacier for more than a decade. we walk acss a rocky moraine ton ice cave, the surest sign that this glacier in big trouble. a heahy glacier flo like a slowoving river of ice. the fact that we can work our way through th fozen catacomb is aign that is rotting from t inside. >> take a little ce. that's fragilehere. >> reporter: the startling beauty of the iceatterns insides deceptive. these ve beenarved by me water om the ponds and lakes we s on the surface working its wadeep down into the glacier itself. >> the ocks that we're standing on here, th've fallen fromhe walls. >> reporter: theseere all on the ceiling? >> yes, these collapsed om the ceing. we als find this in these himalayan glacier caves. >> reporter: so we'r seeing here a close-up view of the death of a glacier. >> yes, it's just collapsing i on themselves. >> reporr: as we head deeper into the cave, w're forced on our hands and knees. the fuher we go, the more convinced e team becomes that without a substanti fall in mperatures here, at least 10 to 15 kilometers, that this enormous glacier i finhed. its quite clear wha is happening here. what i't yet clear is how serious it is. the are some scientistsho are ve worried about what wl happenhen all this flesh wat loed up in ice i these glaciers is loer available tofeed the riv of asia. others belve that that is alarmistbut given how serious the prlem might be, it's high time we found out. dougen