The visit to the United States by Afghan President Hamid Karzai forced President Bush, and with him the American people, to focus on the United States' other war.

It can be argued that if in 2002 America had not diverted its attention from Afghanistan -- the home base of al-Qaida and the 9/11 attacks -- to prepare to attack Iraq, the war in Afghanistan would have been successfully completed by now. That is, however, water over the dam, and the truth is that the situation in Afghanistan now is worsening steadily, while the demands of the war in Iraq preclude the United States from shifting much in the way of resources there.

The Taliban, driven out of Afghanistan by early 2002, are back and, laced with al-Qaida support, firmly installed both in neighboring Pakistan and in Afghanistan itself. There may be reason to believe that they are sheltering a still at-large Osama bin Laden. NATO and U.S. troops, working with Afghan government forces, are struggling to contain the Taliban's advance.

The unfortunate American response has come in the form of threats to invade Pakistan, not only from the Bush administration but also from Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama. This approach does not indicate understanding that keeping the Taliban and al-Qaida under control in that part of the world requires Pakistani cooperation, particularly given overstretched American military capacity and European horror at the thought of being involved in an attack on Pakistan.

Afghanistan also has fallen back into the category of states dominated by the drug trade. Most of the world's opium once again comes from there. Intended post-9/11 efforts to steer its economy in other directions have fallen victim to insufficient resources and attention.

Mr. Karzai's government continues to look reasonably good, although that is partly by comparison to the abysmal performance of the occupation government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Kamal al-Maliki. Mr. Karzai is laboring under the heavy burden of civilian casualties occurring as U.S., NATO and Afghan forces seek to defeat the Taliban. One result has been calls by other Afghan leaders for him to put an end to the foreign troop presence on Afghan soil.

Mr. Karzai and Mr. Bush no doubt discussed these matters at length. It is hard to see a reasonable way out.

If U.S. and NATO forces were to pull out of Afghanistan, it is likely that Mr. Karzai's government would fall to the Taliban, putting us all back where we were prior to that fateful Sept. 11.