Out of Afghanistan.

• Position: Comment - Essay

Afghanistan is proving to be an unsalvageable mess. And the 93,000 U.S. troops are stuck in a no-win situation.

Several issues make the U.S. campaign untenable.

There's the immense amount of corruption. President Hamid Karzai, the beneficiary of a rigged election, protects the worst sort of warlords and drug lords under his cape, the foremost being his own stepbrother, Ahmad Wall Karzai. A Western development expert told a New York Times reporter that in the presence of such figures, any effort at developing Afghanistan is like "growing a beautiful fruit on a diseased vine." And yet characters like Wali continue to alienate the population, sheltered not only by the Afghan government but also by U.S. troops and the CIA. U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry got it right when he told the White House (in a leaked memo), "It strains credulity to expect Karzai to change fundamentally this late in his life and in our relationship."

Afghan troops under Karzai's command are in disarray, bringing into question if they'll ever be able to be molded into an effective fighting force. A recent report by the special inspector general for Afghan reconstruction stated that "serious challenges affect U.S. and coalition assessment efforts, including security conditions, mentor shortages, and inadequate training," and that "systemic deficiencies have undermined efforts to develop unit capabilities."

In addition, there are overtures being made to the Taliban, the very entity the United States is fighting. Karzai has been sending feelers to the Taliban leadership, and at one point has even threatened to join the insurgency himself. Professor Juan Cole, an expert on the region, blogs that Karzai is lobbying the United Nations to remove Taliban head Mullah Muhammad Omar and other key Taliban leaders from the U.N. terrorist list in order to nudge the insurgents to the negotiating table.

Pakistan has also been furiously maneuvering to get the upper hand in its never-ending strategic game with India, with army chief Ashfaq Kayani and intelligence head honcho Ahmed Shuja Pasha making repeated trips to Afghanistan to ensure that a government friendly to Pakistan is lodged into place. (Pakistan continues to shelter and provide succor to the Taliban leadership.)

Then, there's the huge cost of the Afghan operation--both human and financial. U.S. casualties in Afghanistan since 2001 have surpassed the dreaded 1,000 mark. The United Nations reports that the...