Our money, time and lives would have been better spent just building a 50ft wall right around Afghanistan's border. They can live the medieval, tribal, fundamentalist dream to their hearts' content.
Mr Karzai said his priority for his remaining days in office was to forge a peace agreement with the Taliban and said the insurgents could eventually take up roles within the government.
"They are Afghans. Where the Afghan president, the Afghan government can appoint the Taliban to a government job they are welcome," he said.
Nothing we can do can drag this dump into the modern, civilized world, and neither do they want to be dragged that way. I wait with interest to see which will be the next empire to waste a decade or two in the Stan. There is a certain pattern to this place. Nothing changes.