knew what I wanted to achieve in Afghanistan, and Trump’s other senior advisors shared my two objectives. Tied for first, they were: (1) preventing the potential resurgence of ISIS and al-Qaeda, and their attendant threats of terrorist attacks against America; and (2) remaining vigilant against the nuclear-weapons programs in Iran on the west and Pakistan on the east. This was the counterterrorism platform1 we wanted to pursue in early 2019.2 The hard part was getting Trump to agree and then stick with his decision.
