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That seems to be just what Sen. John McCain is now suggesting -- adding troops for counterterrorism, increasing US airpower and targeting the enemy, the Taliban and its allies al Qaeda and ISIS directly. And with the President's national security adviser en route to Bedminster to meet with Donald Trump, it's not a moment too soon. We've previously made a similar commitment. The shooting ended in Korea 64 years ago, though since no peace treaty was ever signed, we are still technically at war with North Korea and we still have more than 23,000 troops there.

We might even be fighting a hot war there again before long.

Today, the consequences could be even greater.

That led to a war that lasted nearly the entire decade of the 1980s, a quagmire that was often likened to Russia's Vietnam War. Thousands of young men returning in body bags and a national revulsion in Russia for the Kremlin's obsessions with Afghanistan were important contributors to the end of communism and the breakup of the Soviet Union.

Still, let's assume Donald Trump is wise enough to follow the recommendations of his sainted generals and keep -- or even more importantly, enlarge -- America's troop presence there in limited combat, as well as advisory roles, just as we are doing now, to some effect, in Syria.

First, under no circumstances must we tip our hand, as President Obama did in Iraq and again in Afghanistan, and suggest that there's a firm deadline to our presence there.

Now, in Afghanistan, we have a new opportunity not to make the same mistake twice. We must let the bad guys think our presence is forever and that our resources know no bounds. Don't give the bad guys an open-and-shut reason to just wait you out. You need to say one thing and sound like you mean it. We'll stay until the end, no matter how bitter it might be and the bad guys are beaten (just like the US is doing now with ISIS) or until our side in the Afghan stew can really take up the fight and win it.

This time, the stakes could be even higher. Imagine a Taliban back in power in Kabul that decides just the perfect present for their new allies and friends from ISIS -- who helped them return to power -- might be a small nuke that North Korea is willing and may very soon be able, to put on the black market. Then we are talking an existential threat to the American heartland that will make 9/11 seem like a distant memory.

What you need to do is tell your generals, sooner rather than later, you want to stay in Afghanistan until victory is won. Then, define what that victory should look like and why it is so deeply important to the world's security.

At the same time, we can't ignore the civil society component. It's certainly not a pretty picture. According to last month's quarterly report to Congress of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), Afghanistan's domestic revenues declined some 25% over a year earlier and "covered about 40 percent of total government expenditures."

Moreover, the largest single product of the largest economic sector, agriculture, was the production of opioids, which according to SIGAR nearly doubled to $3.02 billion last year from $1.56 billion a year earlier. We must find a way to build a viable economy independent of the Taliban.

Gen. Mattis and Gen. McMaster are supposed to come pay their respects to Mr Trump in Bedminster, New Jersey, on his working vacation this week. While perhaps overshadowed by Korea, it's still a perfect time to lay all this out for him. The President must not waste any more time, or waffle any further over a decision.

Be decisive and make the right choice, as painful as it may appear. For the alternative may be far more painful. Not just in the long run, but far more immediately than might ever be imagined. Sometimes, hardball does work.

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How Trump can win in Afghanistan - CNN International