By: Kayla Pasacreta

Last night, Donald Trump rolled out his plans for dealing with the 16-year old war in Afghanistan.  Trump initially planned to pull all troops out of Afghanistan, but said his time in the Oval Office made him change his mind.

• Trump is giving the Pentagon permission to increase the amount of troops stationed in Afghanistan by several thousand, but did not give an exact number. Jeremy Bash, former chief of staff for the CIA, called the move, "inconceivable that we will deploy troops there, tell the Afghan government the number, tell 39 other nations the number and the composition, but not tell the American people. That doesn’t make much sense.”
• Trump described the end goal of the war as, "Attacking our enemies, obliterating ISIS, crushing Al-Qaeda, preventing the Taliban from taking over Afghanistan, and stopping mass terror attacks against America before they emerge."
• Trump outlined a plan to work toward negotiation, but warned negotiating with Afghanistan has not been a breeze.
• The plan was pretty vague. In February, Trump remarked, "I don’t want to be one of these guys that say, yes, here’s what we’re going to do. I don’t have to do that,” regarding sharing military plans.
• The plan was reportedly widely influenced by Trump's chief of staff, John Kelly, who served in Afghanistan and does not believe the U.S. can afford to simply walk away and lose the war.
• Trump wants to ease restrictions on commanders, to make it easier for them to respond to situations in a way they see fit. Restrictions are normally made to limit the amount of civilian casualties in battle.
• Afghanistan's ambassador to the country, Hamdullah Mohib, is in favor of the plan, " [the plan] takes into account our country’s needs and constraints."
• The end goal is the same as Barack Obama's; ultimately to get the Taliban to join negotiation talks to conclude the war.

The war in Afghanistan started shortly after September 11, 2001, the day the U.S. was hit with a massive terrorist attack in 3 different cities. The most clear part of Trump's plan is to win, by killing as many terrorists as possible.