tonight on "nightline" -- war room -- legendary washington reporter bob woodward publishes a shocking behind the scenes look at the disagreements that tore through the obama administration in planning the afghanistan war. diane sawyer goes head to head with the author. plus -- caught on tape, young u.s. soldiers make shocking admissions of atrocities, abuse and general lawlessness inside their combat unit in afghanistan. we bring you the video in a n investigation. and top shelf -- you voted online to find the country's best local chef and tonight we can finally unveil the winner of our people's

"plate list." . good evening, i'm cynthia mcfadden. we begin tonight with politics and the story of what went on behind closed doors at the white house as president obama and his advisers looked for a resolution to the war in afghanistan. what was ultimately presented to the public was, according to "the washington post," bob woodward, a patchwork compromise that required more than a little aggressive arm-twisting by the president himself. tonight, diane sawyer has the exclusive interview with bob woodward. >> reporter: the book is filled with big personalities and big debates. there's vice president joe biden showing up unannounced early one morning as the president comes down the stairs to warn that

afghanistan could lead to another vietnam. >> and the president says, i am not going to sign on to failure. i am not going to be like those other presidents and stick with it because of my ego, my politics, my political security. other words, obama says, i'm not going to be lyndon johnson. we have to have a plan. we're getting out. we're ending this war. >> reporter: shocking detail about private meetings is what woodward has built his career on. >> i shall resign the presidency effective at noon tomorrow. >> reporter: in that political scandal that ended a presidency, reporters bob woodward and carl bernstein broke the watergate story and brought the nixon administration down. >> i final wave. >> reporter: their secret source, famously known as deep throat, their clandestine visits depicted in the film "all the president's men."

>> i wouldn't quote you. you'd be on deep background. >> reporter: he's famous for getting people on the inside to talk. talked to 100 people. countless documents. you have details of some 40 meetings with the president and his advisers. were people just eager to talk? >> the beginning of the project, one of the president's top advisers says to me, you're not going to find many deep throats around here. and by the end of the process, he was reading his own notes of the top-secret meetings. >> reporter: you do have a heart-pounding description of a brand-new president. he gets the briefing about the constellation of terror in the world. >> it's a cold shower. two -- imagine, the high of being elected on that tuesday, and then they come in two days later and say, by the way, here's -- here are the secrets. >> reporter: at one point, later

on, the president is told, there are 20 al qaeda converts trying to get into the united states. >> it's a drumbeat. >> reporter: but what does this -- >> they're coming. they're planning. they're plotting. they're communicating. >> reporter: and what is his reaction to that when he gets these briefings? >> well, if you want to play what he told me, i'll -- i mean, i was -- i jumped in my chair a little bit when he told me, when he literally said, we can absorb a terrorist attack. >> i said very early on as a senator and continued to believe as a presidential candidate and, now, as president, that we can -- we can absorb a terrorist attack. we'll do everything we can to prevent it. but even a 9/11, even the biggest attack ever, that ever

took place on our soil, we absorbed it and we are stronger. >> reporter: did he say it before? >> as best i can tell, no. i mean, they -- all the people run around the white house and say, we're living on borrowed time in terms a terrorist attack. and i suspect, consciously, unconsciously, he's laying the groundwork for telling the people, we can absorb it. we'll try to prevent it. we're strong. we got over 9/11. but it's not a world of zero defects. >> reporter: as we know, when it came to decisionmaking on afghanistan, five blocks of granite, as woodward called them, stood against the new president. the meetings. obama felt -- you're writing in a general way too. obama felt disrespected and trapped. and at different times, he felt that the military was maneuvering around him. did they think they could take a young president? >> some of them might have thought that.

so you're the president who's supposed to be the decider, who's supposed to have choice, and you've got these blocks of granite out there saying, oh, no, you really don't have a choice, that is the way to do it. and he was not happy. >> reporter: the establishment wanted 40,000 troops, an open-ended commitment. he wanted a plan for a u.s. exit. in the end, he gave 30,000. but still the military kept pushing. the president kept resisting. >> he said, i'm not doing ten years. i am not doing a never-ending nation-building. i'm not going to spend a trillion dollars. >> reporter: what's the angriest he gets at the military? >> at one of the meetings, if i can quote him directly, he just says, i'm pissed. and he is. because they keep coming back about details. and they're trying to push him in that direction.

and he's pushing back. >> reporter: and, again, he sits down and he dictates a six-page document -- >> to the military -- >> reporter: -- ever before done to your knowledge in american history? >> not that i can tell. >> reporter: someone says to him, if you do this, it will become your war. he says? >> "it already is." >> reporter: why obama's war? why not obama's health care? why not one of the other topics that will go down as -- with his stamp on it, his name on it? >> well, the wars are going to go down with his name on it. he spends countless hours on it. it's a weight on his shoulders. he writes a letter to the family of anyone who dies. and you can't do that week after week and not realize that this is not -- this is your choice, your war. >> fascinating insights. our thanks to diane sawyer.

bob woodward's book, obama's wars, is in stores now. when we come back, another story from the war, but this time shocking revelations from the front lines. an arresting scene of confession. tttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt 66% of new products have some kind of intelligence built in... refrigerators order groceries from the store. washing machines run when energy prices are lowest... and dryers call for service before they break down. air conditioners respond to local weather reports. software gives businesses new ways to connect to customers. by making things smarter, life gets better. that's what i'm working on. i'm an ibmer. i'm an ibmer. i'm an ibmer. let's build a smarter planet. we want to prove it. take the natural instincts challenge. get healthier color in 10 minutes. guaranteed.

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we return now to afghanistan and a story of unusually ruthless violence and heartless conduct. what makes this story especially painful is that it's a tale

drawn from firsthand accounts of american soldiers talking about their own actions in taped confessions. brian ross is here now with our "nightline" investigation. brian. >> reporter: cynthia, the allegations are reminiscent of the military's darkest days in vietnam. again, young gis caught up in a difficult war, accused of widespread drug use and the random killing of innocent civilians apparently for sport or thrills. this is what is called forward operating base ram rod in southern afghanistan. the place where the military says these five american soldiers all in their 20s from the 2nd infantry division conspired to kill innocent, unarmed afghan civilians in nearby villages. on a videotaped confession obtained by abc news, one of the five soldiers charged with murder, corporal jeremy morlock,

casually described how his sergeant, calvin gibbs, seen here in a high school photo, had the men in the unit help pick out afghan civilians at random and then kill them with grenades and rifle fire. >> you know, he pulled out one of his grenades, an american grenade, you know, popped it, throws the grenade and then, you know, tells me, winfield, all right, you know, kill this guy, kill this guy. >> reporter: army investigators say sergeant gibbs' alleged killing sprees became widely known at the ram rod base. 22-year-old specialist adam winfield told his parents in florida about it in february via face book, describing murder, telling his parents, he didn't feel safe telling anyone at the base about the crimes. >> the guy that was doing this was his superior, this was his staff sergeant, and there's a chain of command out there. and in the army, in the service, you don't break your chain of command. i mean, you just don't do that. he was afraid to anyway.

he said that if he told anybody over there that this particular individual was keeping an eye on him, he would never make it past that night, he would never make it home. >> reporter: so that very day, february 14, the winfields say they called six different army offices and a senator to get help. >> thank you for calling fort lewis -- >> you've reached the office of the inspector general -- >> reporter: leaving at least four messages. >> i said, my son is in afghanistan. he's deployed in afghanistan. he's in the front lines. there's a rogue sergeant out there that is apparently killing innocent victims, and my son found out about this, and they're threatening him because -- he might say something to somebody. i said, you've got to get him out of there. you need to call me back, please. >> reporter: at the command center at fort lewis, the headquarters for their son's division, winfield says he finally got a sergeant on the line but with a disappointing response. >> the sergeant came back to me and said, you know, it's a terrible situation, but from our

end, it's a he said/she said conversation and there's nothing we can do about it. >> reporter: nothing they can do about it? meantime in afghanistan, other soldiers later said the sergeant, gibbs became suspicious of a dam winfield. >> did you think he was serious about discussions he may have to take out winfield? >> oh, [ bleep ] yeah, for sure. >> so you didn't take that as a joke or like maybe he was just talking or -- >> he doesn't bull [ bleep ]. he doesn't need to. >> i told him this is what they told us to do, you know, duck, keep your head down, stay away from this guy, do the best you can, you know? and it's tough. as a parent, you know, i didn't expect hip to come home. >> reporter: but adam winfield is now charged with pre-mmeditad murder. three months after trying to blow the whistle, he says sergeant ginns forced him to

take part in another murder. winfield claims he aimed high with his rifle, trying to avoid hitting the body of the afghan victim with his bullets. >> it's heartbreaking. you know, again, i'm so thankful that he made it out of there alive. but he doesn't deserve to be treated the way he's been treated when in february he reached out and, as parents, we did what we could do. and we will probably always regret we didn't do more. we were working from that place that he was afraid for his life and we weren't going to do anything to risk his life. and now, in essence, we're just fighting for his life and fighting for justice to be done. >> reporter: at fort lewis today, the military held its first hearing on the case. as lawyers for corporal morlock sought to have the videotaped confession kept out of evidence, maintaining morlock only played along during the murders.

>> first of all, he did not cause of death of any of those individuals. and he was present, as was everyone else in that platoon, at the time of all those shootings, but many of the individuals went along for the ride. >> reporter: a lawyer for sergeant gibbs declined to comment about the case. but it is clear other soldiers will seek to blame him as a crazy man who forced them to participate. >> gibbs is essentially a serial kill a killer. so he's inspiring young men to wake up in the morning, go out, take an innocent civilian life and keep their body parts for souvenirs and take photos as trophies. >> reporter: the military says the investigation of the murders also led to the discovery of widespread drug use at forward operating base ram rod. on another video, this corporal described how soldiers took hashish laced with opium to help

with the stress of combat. >> days that we just needed an escape. >> how frequently was that? >> i'd say probably anywhere from three to four -- >> reporter: if true, the allegations of widespread drug use, the murders, the intimidation, all raise serious questions about the command structure and the ability of the u.s. military in afghanistan to control its soldiers. >> he's a good soldier. >> he's a good kid, you know -- >> that was put in a horrific situation. with, you know, a lack of command out on the field, and a failure of, you know, of the military to -- to be responsive to a cry for help. >> the military now confirms it is investigating the allegations that the parents of adam winfield tried back in february to warn the army that both innocent afghan civilians and u.s. soldiers were being put at risk. cynthia.

>> we await results of the investigation. our thanks, brian. when we come back, we'll shift gears completely and turn to lighter fare, although this is one fast food trend that may leave you feeling stuffed. tttttttttttt♪ ttttt [ male announcer ] you're at the age where you don't get thrown by curve balls. ♪ this is the age of knowing how to get things done. ♪ so why would you let something like erectile dysfunction get in your way? isn't it time you talked to your doctor about viagra? 20 million men already have. ♪ with every age comes responsibility. ask your doctor if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take viagra if you take nitrates for chest pain, as it may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. side effects may include headache, flushing, upset stomach, and abnormal vision. to avoid long-term injury, seek immediate medical help

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[ female announcer ] there's only one you. that's why sutter health created thedoctorforyou.com, where you can find a doctor based on criteria important to you. and because it's sutter health, you can choose a doctor from some of the most respected medical groups and hospitals in northern california. find your doctor today at thedoctorforyou.com. sutter health. with you. for life. find your doctor today at thedoctorforyou.com. there are moments when the struggle to get americans to eat better, smaller portions, fewer calories, seems to be moving, well, in the wrong direction. in the fast food trend we're about to show you, just might underscore that feeling.

that depends how you feel about foot long hamburgers. for clarissa ward, they're another sign of the times. >> reporter: there's a new frontier in the quest for fast food domination and it's bigger and bolder than any before. behold, the battle of the foot longs. that's right, foot long, as in 12 inches. >> many of your favorite foot longs are $5 each -- >> reporter: it started out with subs but now we're talking burgers. on one side, carl's jr. foot long cheeseburger weighing in at a whopping 850 calories with 20 grams of saturated fat. on the other, sonic's foot long quarter pound conney dog with 2 gram of saturated fat. carl's jr. and sonic have been testing the beefy behemoths in locations across the country. have you tried the foot-long coney dog? >> yeah, it's delicious.

>> reporter: would you let your kid eat it? >> he wouldn't finish it. >> reporter: the foot long fetish comes at a time when americans are fatter than ever. >> the centers for disease control estimates that in some population groups, the percentages guy as high as 60% and as high as 15% or 20% among kids. >> reporter: so why would the statistics getting scarier do our burgers continue to balloon in size? >> i think we work more than the rest of the world. >> reporter: but there's another reason why we're fatter than the rest of the world. >> our marketing is more aggressive. our portion sizes are larger. and our entire approach to eating is different. >> reporter: in other words -- >> americans like big things. >> reporter: but is too much really never enough? it seems there's only one way to settle the matter. yes, i would like to try your foot long cheeseburger. >> $6. >> reporter: how are those foot long cheeseburger selling? >> they're selling okay. >> reporter: thank you. >> anything else for you? >> reporter: that's it, thank you very much. that is a big burger.

this really is the biggest burger i have ever seen. it's like the never-ending burger. almost halfway there. i'm starting to lose some steam here. it took ten minutes and 26 seconds and the experience was al all-consuming. stick a fork in me, i'm done. but america, it seems, is just getting started. ♪ i love paris in the summer >> reporter: turn on the tv and it looks like chains are literally going out of their way to outcalorie, outfat and outgross each other. there's the kfc double down with bacon and cheese tucked between two slabs of fried chicken. >> today's the day i double down. >> reporter: or the friendly's cheeseburger melt, a beef patty

held together by two grilled cheese sandwiches. even denny's has though its hat into the ring with the mozzarella stick filled fried cheese melt. >> oh, the calories! if i had one thing that i could teach americans, it would be that larger portions have more calories. i know it seems obvious but it's not. >> reporter: carl's jr. says it's not setting out to make anyone fat and that it targets, quote, young hungry men. >> well, usually i get a subway sandwich and it's a foot long so i saw a foot long burger and i was like, i got to get that. >> reporter: you don't get scared about your heart? >> no. they don't say that on the advertisement, right? >> i'm totally obsessed. >> reporter: no, they certainly don't. it's not clear if the foot long feast will be rolled out across the nation. ♪ for this is the night >> reporter: their staggering size seems to have inspired a cult following but not everyone has the stomach for them. >> you don't get a body like

this eating that stuff. >> reporter: truer words were never spoken. for "nightline," i'm clarice ss ward, santa ana, california. >> who hasn't eaten for an week since. our thanks to clarissa. when we come bark the winner of our plate list. >> tonight, sigourney weaver, dancing star wrangler tom bergeron and music from randy kevin houser.