Rare Video of Deadly Taliban Assault on U.S. Base in Afghanistan

They called it the "Living Room War" because startling, gripping footage from Vietnam battlefields appeared on American TV sets each night during the late 1960s. By bringing home such visceral images, public sentiment turned against the war and eventually brought the conflict to an end.

Despite the ubiquity of video in present day society (compare video cell phones with 1968 technology), the same cannot be said about the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars. Americans have been shielded from the brutality of war -- and that may have preserved our tolerance for "warfare from afar."

That's why a deadly 2008 Taliban assault on an outpost in Wanat, Afghanistan that left nine Americans dead is so startling. Especially when the American military abandoned the post just two days after lives were sacrificed to protect it. ABC's Jim Sciutto and David Martin of CBS report on the attack in two separate reports. Would more of these videos force an American troop withdrawal -- or is it insignificant? Do we have a critical mission to carry out in the region?