"The Forgotten War": How Afghanistan Slips Away

A number of articles, focusing on the declining success of the American and NATO-led mission in Afghanistan.  Can the country be turned around, without a comprehensive strategy to deal with Afghanistan itself, the cross-border Taliban, Pakistan, the opium trade, Iran, while simultaneously pressuring Iran over nuclear weapons programs (alleged or actual), threatening (er, attacking) Pakistan, sinking billions into Iraq and facing a global economic slowdown?  McCain, in the last debate, referenced American "exceptionalism"; how utterly dangerous, in a time of serious economic crisis at home, to promise an agenda that may cost far more than we as a society can or may be willing to pay.  Where is that leader who will admit that we are in, strategically, financially and certainly rhetorically, far over our heads?