This week, the Trump administration is moving forward with its plan to reduce American involvement in Afghanistan. The odds of success are not high. At this moment, however, the plan probably is the least-bad option.

Initially, the Taliban has agreed only to limit violence for seven days beginning at the stroke of midnight last Saturday. If relative quiet ensues, direct talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government will begin.

The goal, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said, is to reach a "political settlement to end the war in Afghanistan, reduce United States and Allied Forces presence, and ensure that no terrorist group ever uses Afghan soil to threaten the United States or our allies."

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A question: What do Eritrea, Mauritania, Somalia, Qatar, Pakistan, Libya and Venezuela have in common? An answer: All are lands ruled by chronic violators of basic human rights. And, oh yes, all are members of the U.N. Human Rights Council.

This is no mere coincidence. Members of the UNHRC needn't worry about being criticized by the UNHRC. Membership has an additional privilege: A license to slander Israel, the only state in the Middle East that actually guarantees rights to its citizens — Jews, Arabs, Muslims, Christians and Druze alike. The UNHRC has condemned Israel more than all other nations of the world combined. It has passed not a single resolution condemning China, Russia, Cuba or Zimbabwe.

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Bipartisanship was in short supply at last week's State of the Union address — with one notable exception.

Nancy Pelosi had been looking dyspeptic, shuffling the papers she would later rip to shreds, when President Trump reminded his audience that "the United States is leading a 59-nation diplomatic coalition against the socialist dictator of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro."

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Some Palestinians have long dreamed of creating, for the first time in history, their own nation-state. Others have long dreamed of exterminating Israel, the re-created nation-state of the Jewish people. The second dream has prevented realization of the first.

Last week, President Trump unveiled what is being called (e.g. by The New York Times) his "Mideast peace plan." That's imprecise. The wars being waged in the region — e.g. in Syria, Yemen and Sinai — will be unaffected by whatever transpires between Palestinians and Israelis.

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"There are two ways to fight the United States militarily: asymmetrically and stupid."

Few would quarrel with this observation by retired Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, formerly President Trump's national security adviser, currently chairman of the board of advisers to Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD)'s Center on Military and Political Power.

But that raises a question: Why have we failed to develop a strategy to defeat enemies fighting us asymmetrically? In other words, why is there still a smart way to kill Americans?

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