There were two remarkable things about Donald Trump's speech on Afghanistan. One was that after years of advocating that the war effort be abandoned, he had come to the conclusion that instead America's military presence needed to be expanded and deadlines for departure scrapped.

You could call this the victory of the generals over Trump's ousted chief strategist, Stephen Bannon.

The second was that he devoted so much time at the start of the speech to preaching about national unity.

"By following the heroic example of those who fought to preserve our republic, we can find the inspiration our country needs to unify, to heal and to remain one nation under God," he said. "The men and women of our military operate as one team, with one shared mission and one shared sense of purpose.'