It is almost a year since Barack Obama claimed to have brought America’s longest war, in Afghanistan, to a “responsible end”. Yet it has not ended—over 5,000 Afghan soldiers and police have been killed this year by the Taliban—and the residual Western force of 13,000 soldiers, mostly Americans, has often been drawn into the fray. Both points were illustrated by the American bombing of a hospital in Taliban-controlled Kunduz on Saturday, which killed at least 22 people. The rise of a new wing of the Taliban, affiliated to Islamic State, and enduring political turmoil in Kabul, are among the reasons to believe the conflict will worsen. This has called into question Mr Obama’s pledge to withdraw almost all the remaining American troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2016. The deadline is now likely to be extended: Mr Obama will bequeath America’s unending war to his successor.