“This is like a leak in a balloon. We can chase [al-Qaida and the Taliban’s] tails all over Afghanistan, but if they can just slip over the border and thumb their noses at us, what’s the point?”

“There’s a lot of activity taking place with the warlords that isn’t being reported and the Pakistani border is a real mess.”

“Most of the security reports I see today say that it’s the Soviet situation all over again. In daytime, major cities are somewhat under the control of the central government. But at night, it’s anyone with a rifle, and the rural areas are completely off Karzai’s radar.”

Those are a few quotes from an MSNBC article on Afghanistan that's well worth reading. Is Afghanistan a quagmire? Yes, it's a quagmire.

(Thanks to Rational Enquirer for the link.)