Hot on the heels of a recently-released report in which Afghanistan commander General McChrystal said the U.S. mission in Afghanistan "will likely result in failure" without calling up additional troops, President Obama hit the talk show circuit expressing concern about sending more troops. How are these mixed messages playing out for those about to be deployed?

Kristen L. Rouse is a first lieutenant in the Army National Guard and recently found out she would be deployed for a second tour in Afghanistan. Mary Galeti's husband Russell is also soon to be deployed to Afghanistan. They join us with their thoughts on the continued U.S. presence in Afghanistan. We're also joined by Larry Korb, former Assistant Secretary of Defense under Ronald Reagan and now a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and a senior advisor for the Center for Defense Information.

The Federal Reserve meets today against an improving economic backdrop. For once, inflation and interest rates are not the news of the day. Louise Story, finance reporter for our partner The New York Times, looks at what else the Fed is acting on right now.

Our sports correspondent, Ibrahim Abdul-Matin, looks at the NFL and the rise of the "wildcat offense."

Today, at a one-day U.N. summit, President Obama will talk face-to-face with Chinese President Hu Jintao. The two aim to get beyond roiling trade disputes to attempt an agreement on global warming legislation. What factors are separating these two at the table? Here to tell us is David Biello, energy and environmental editor at Scientific American.

In his ongoing effort to regain public momentum for health care reform, President Obama continued his media blitz yesterday by appearing on Late Night with David Letterman, finishing off a long weekend of media appearances.

Joining us are two people who were in the live studio audience. Fernando Deguia is an Obama supporter from Staten Island and Joanne Morgan, an Obama critic, saw the show while visiting New York City from Doha, Qatar.

Watch a clip of Obama on Late Night with David Letterman:

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, we're soon likely to see a major shift in the gender balance of the working world. As early as this November, it's projected that for the first time in U.S. history, more women will be working than men. Add to this fact that 78 percent of the people laid off in the recent recession were men, and one sees a whole new picture of America's workforce.

We speak with Beth Kobliner, author of "Get a Financial Life: Personal Finance in Your Twenties and Thirties." She says the forces changing the demographics of the working world influence both men and women. Also, Sharon Meers, a former Goldman Sachs executive and co-author of "Getting to 50/50: How Working Couples Can Have It All by Sharing It All," explains what the shifts might mean for the managers and workers of small and large companies across the country.

President Obama added another TV appearance to his recent media tour last night. He stopped by the fabled couches of "The Late Show with David Letterman" and brought his bully pulpit with him. Jeff Zeleny of The New York Times joins us with a look at whether the president's policy goals were met by his late-night appearance. And Delaina Dixon, founder of delainadixon.com, brings us her thoughts on whether the president was more fun to watch than stupid pet tricks.

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Yesterday, the mail-order movie-rental company Netflix announced the winner of a contest they began back in 2006. They awarded $1 million to the people who came up with the best improvement to the company's method for recommending movies. The competition was such a success, Netflix is holding another one. Louise Story, finance reporter for The New York Times, tells us about companies offering bounties for business improvements.

In baseball, the Red Sox are nipping at the Yankees' heels in the American League East.  And in basketball, the NBA is locking out their referees in a labor dispute. Our sports correspondent, Ibrahim Abdul-Matin, walks us around the bases.

Afghanistan is at the forefront of President Obama's foreign policy agenda. With General Stanley McChrystal calling for more troops on the one hand, and several prominent members of the Senate calling for a pull-out on the other, President Obama must walk a careful line. We speak to Charlie Sennott, executive editor of GlobalPost.

We speak with Hugh Sykes, BBC correspondent in Baghdad, for a look at the current situation in Iraq. Sykes visited the largest American internment camp in Iraq, Camp Bucca, as it was being dismantled. Many of the detainees from the camp have been released without being charged; the remaining prisoners have been transferred to other camps, although those camps will also soon have to shut down.

Estimates say that starting now, the number of people around the world who have dementia will double every 20 years. That means today's caseload of 35 million victims will balloon to 70 million by 2030, then leap to an astounding 115 million by 2050. The news is in a report out yesterday from Alzheimer's Disease International. (Read the report's Executive Summary [PDF, 24 pages, 746KB])

We're left wondering: is the United States prepared for this increase? And why haven't we heard about this before now? We speak to David Shenk, author of the book "The Forgetting: Alzheimer's: Portrait of an Epidemic," and Renee Packel, a 73-year-old caregiver whose husband has Alzheimer's.

President Obama is due to bring both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to a meeting at the U.N. in New York today. He'll be looking for ways to restart Middle East peace negotiations. The president wants Israel to stop settlement building in the West Bank, the Palestinians say they won't negotiate until that happens, and the Israelis seem leery of ordering a hard stop. We talk with BBC's Jon Donnison from the West Bank town of Ramallah and hear some Palestinian voices.