“We are there to make sure that we don’t have another 9/11 originate in Afghanistan,” Andrew Wilder, an Afghanistan expert at the US Institute of Peace, told me. He was referring to how al-Qaeda was able to plan the attacks in Afghanistan’s ungoverned places. That’s why he feels it is important to commit US troops to the region: to ensure al-Qaeda or other groups don’t have the time and space to plan that kind of strike again. Trump alluded to 9/11 a few times in his speech, citing the same concerns.

To walk us through what the U.S. faces: Andrew Wilder is vice president of Asia Programs at the United States Institute of Peace.

Trump said we’re not in the business of nation building, but he shouldn’t discount it, either, said Andrew Wilder of the United States Institute of Peace. “Having a democracy there is an important, fundamental to exit strategy from Afghanistan,” Wilder told PBS NewsHour’s Judy Woodruff. “Just killing bad guys — we’ve done a lot of that over 16 years,” Wilder said, but more important is ensuring the country’s 2019 presidential election is legitimate. Otherwise, we’ll see “a descent into anarchy with no legitimate government,” he said.

For the rest, resources have been prey to what William Byrd, a development economist with the United States Institute of Peace, has dubbed "industrial-scale looting".

“It’s a difficult situation and there’s no real silver bullet, but what’s clear is the policy of leave now and precipitously withdraw our troops is a real recipe for disaster,” said Andrew Wilder, vice president of Asia programs at the U.S. Institute of Peace, who advocates a modest troop increase.

Maria Stephan: Nonviolent movements are, on any given day, happening all around the world. Some are smaller scale, some are larger mass-movements, but you need look no further than the United States to see nonviolent resistance in action. For example, the Women’s March, on the day after the inauguration, was the single largest demonstration in U.S. history. About 1.7% of the U.S. population participated in that mass demonstration, and since that time there have been follow-on marches demonstrations, strikes, and the like. There is a lot happening domestically to challenge certain policies and advance democracy...

"Obviously it's something Afghanistan should be doing. It's crazy to be importing cement over long distances," said William Byrd, a development economist with the United States Institute of Peace in Washington.

Andrew Wilder, vice president of Asia programs at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), pointed to the upcoming Afghan presidential elections in 2019. The last election in 2014 required heavy U.S. involvement. Scott Worden, director of Afghanistan and Central Asia Programs at USIP, said that, on one hand, Trump wants to protect the U.S. from terrorism emanating from Afghanistan, but on the other, 30 years of non-democratic institutions in Afghanistan have led to more violence. Belquis Ahmadi, a senior program officer as USIP, said it is now “up to the Afghans to address the needs of its people.”