Secretary of State John Kerry made an unannounced visit to Afghanistan Monday. He's trying to smooth over the latest disputes with President Hamid Karzai.

On the 10-year anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, journalist Aaron Glantz talks about the challenges American service members face in accessing disability and other benefits. Glantz says there is a backlog of 900,000 claims and that the average waiting period is 273 days.

In today's military, there's a chance that it's the wife and mother who heads off to war, not the husband. That role reversal poses challenges to families and society.

One area of rural development where the Afghan government has had some success is the National Solidarity Program. Funded by international aid, it distributes small grants to rural villages. For more on its successes, Renee Montagne talks to Wais Ahmad Barmak, who heads the Rural Rehabilitation and Development Ministry.

A few decades ago, trees covered an estimated 50 percent of Afghanistan. Now, an official says that figure is just 2 percent. The main reason is the illegal harvesting and trade of timber. A visit to Kunar province, near the Pakistan border, reveals that many people, from top officials down, are involved.

Chuck Hagel is the first Secretary of Defense to have served in Vietnam and the only veteran to hold that job who was not an officer. Hagel was also awarded two purple hearts for war injuries. Last weekend he traveled to Afghanistan and pinned purple hearts on soldiers there and established his credibility with the troops as a secretary of defense who's been in their boots.