"I am more impressed and more in awe of the armed forces in this country, the uniformed personnel, than ever," the top conservative explained. "They love hearing stories about support for their operations and their mission, because they're all committed to it."

Limbaugh said he was humbled by the experience of meeting the troops on the front lines. "I can talk about them on the radio program as you do and we salute them and so forth," he told Hedgecock. "But I just felt so small compared to these people standing before them."

Afghanistan, he said, was still a "hellhole" after years of Taliban rule and tribal fighting. "I've never seen a place like this. I guess bombed-out Dresden in World War II might look somewhat like it."

Still, said Limbaugh, the Afghan people seemed to realize that their future was brighter thanks to American intervention.

"I met a bunch of native Afghanistan people today who their big fear is that the U.S. will leave," he explained. "They're so excited about the changes in the elections that took place that they're really jazzed."

In a town hall meeting with the troops, the top talker said he got only had a couple policy questions about Afghanistan. "One of them was, 'Do you think that the US system should be what they should adopt or do you think we should allow them to adopt their own system?'"

Limbaugh replied that he wouldn't try to impose an American-style government on the country. "I trust freedom. I trust free people. Let free people make up their own minds about things and you can trust the results."

And he leveled with the soldiers about war critics back home.

"I didn't go politically correct on them. I told them exactly who's saying what about them," Limbaugh explained. "I told them what I think is the sort of phony baloney, plastic banana, good-time rock 'n' roller of some members of the American left saying they support the troops but they don't support their mission.

"And I haven't run into anybody who has snickered," he added.

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