An intent to win: U.S. strategy in Afghanistan isn't working. Trump vows to change that.

President Trump took to prime-time television Monday night before a nation weary of a drawn-out war with no end in sight and all but guaranteed a victory in Afghanistan.

And while deliberately giving no target-end date for the conflict, he gave some indication as to how it would be won.

Trump said victory would come by allowing the generals and commanders in the field to do their jobs without "micromanagement" from Washington.

He said that Pakistan, meanwhile, must and will be held accountable for harboring terrorists and that India must get involved in the fight, if not militarily, then economically.

And good.

For too long our military has been hindered and diplomacy has gotten in the way of holding our allies accountable when they have failed to follow through on what has been expected of them in the effort to defeat the Taliban and ISIS.

The commander in chief said America will no longer disclose troop numbers or plans in advance of their deployment.

"I will not say when we will attack, but attack we will," he said.

And, he said, the time for trying to erect democracies in our likeness overseas is over.

"We're not nation building, we're killing terrorists."

Very well. We know some people just down the street from our offices who are equipped, trained and very capable of doing just that.

We continue to pray for their safety, but if ratcheting up our offensive strategies is what is required to win and leave Afghanistan in better shape than we found it, so be it.

The president was clear, decisive and direct. And now, so should our actions be as we move forward toward ending this war once and for all.

Published in Editorials on August 21, 2017 11:16 PM