the Afghanistan question

Trump is currently assessing whether or not to send more troops to Afghanistan in an attempt to break the stalemate that has been hanging over the country, between government forces and the Taliban.

Unlike Obama, Trump will soon have his own vision for Afghanistan, one that he will likely convince the American people is entirely necessary.

Afghanistan is an incredibly important ally in the war on terror - before Haider Al-Abadi became Prime Minister of Iraq, Afghanistan was probably America's most important regional ally in the war on terror. What Trump needs to convince the American people is that America will not be in Afghanistan forever, there is a vision and there is the possibility of victory.

As Trump well knows, the only way to get the Middle-East stable at this critical juncture is for dictators to return to the region. His views on Syria have guaranteed Bashar Al-Assad, the strongman of Damascus, will remain in power and stabilize the country. His views on Russia give an increasing likelihood for Haftar Al-Khalifa, a strongman in Libya, to control the entire country.

Unlike Iraq, Afghanistan is a better place to start for allowing a strongman to gain control. If the Trump Administration can force Ashraf Ghani to have a dictatorship dedicated to him in Afghanistan, there is a real chance that the country will have something to fight for against the Taliban.

The other thing which needs dealing with is the Afghani-Pakistani border. If Trump can direct American resources to bombing the Taliban as it moves from Pakistan into Afghanistan, the threat will become much smaller.

The wild card in this fight is NATO. Trump could ask NATO allies to contribute more substantially to the war effort in Afghanistan to offset enormous American expenditure there. This would be a win for Trump on both NATO and the Afghan War.

One thing that is for sure: if things continue as they did under Obama, Afghanistan will be America's next Vietnam War.