Editorial: An Exit Strategy From Afghanistan --- As it winds down its 12-year-old military commitment in Afghanistan, the United States is still looking for a face-saving way out of a conflict that seems headed, at best, for a stalemate. The new bilateral security agreement between the two nations is part of that exit strategy. So is a hoped-for political settlement with the Taliban, on which there has been no progress, and a 2014 presidential election process that is also having problems. --- News reports say many Afghans fear that the Kabul government could collapse and the country could return to civil war. The Taliban, through a spokesman, claimed responsibility for a suicide bomb attack on Friday near a residential compound on the outskirts of Kabul. - More, NYTimes