On the eve of the huge drawdown of US forces scheduled for next year, Afghanistan's police, military, judicial and financial institutions are inadequate and dysfunctional. President Obama's unspoken strategy is retreat from an unwinnable war, the perpetuation of which has actively damaged US interests and prestige in the region.

"We will declare victory and get out, just as we always do," said Graham Fuller, former vice chair of the National Intelligence Council at the CIA, noting that a pervasive exhaustion permeates US thinking about the war.