"I would leave the troops there begrudgingly," the then-presidential candidate added. "Believe me, I'm not happy about it."

You remember Afghanistan, right? The longest war in U.S. history and the most unpopular one, too? The ongoing conflict that's been ignored by politicians and pundits alike, despite 2,400 U.S. dead and a whopping $1 trillion price tag?

Afghanistan hardly got a look in during the election campaign. The decade-and-a-half-long war was mentioned only once in the three presidential debates — in the form of a passing reference by Hillary Clinton. Trump, however, might want to put down the golf clubs and start paying attention to the forgotten struggle against the Taliban, which was supposed to have formally ended in December 2014. His generals, backed by GOP hawks in Congress, want to drag it out for a few more years. Their unspoken mantra? When in doubt, double down.