Give Trump Credit For His Afghanistan Plan

Donald Trump campaigned on ending the war in Afghanistan, calling it “a complete waste” and advocating walking away from it. I’d been arraying the possibility around 60 percent that, as president, he’d write off Afghanistan entirely. So it’s very much to his credit that he let himself be persuaded to embrace a policy diametrically opposed to his campaign rhetoric.

And it’s important that he took responsibility for the strategy by explaining himself to the American people on Monday night. It was powerful that he understood their frustration but had come to the conclusion that “the consequences of a rapid exit are both predictable and unacceptable.” The speech showed that President Trump has accepted that, while there may be no good options for dealing with Afghanistan, there are better and worse options, and his instinct had been to select an option that would leave our country less safe.