President Trump articulated important truths about military interventions and pronounced fine principles about the use of force. But he also suggested an open-ended commitment in Afghanistan and articulated an incoherent notion of victory.

Trump, whose views on war and foreign policy have been inconsistent over the years, started to form something of a coherent foreign policy over the course of the campaign, the transition, and his first few months in office. Former President George W. Bush’s Iraq war was a mistake, Trump said, because throwing out Saddam Hussein destabilized the region. He made a similar argument about Former President Barack Obama’s regime change in Libya.