Just over 20 years after September 11th was planned out by Al Qeida based in Afghanistan, the group is planning on doing it again.
According to the Pentagon, the two groups are planning on using the vacuum left by the US withdrawal from Afghanistan to plan and carryout attacks against the US homeland. In a sense nothing much has changed. The US ends its stay in Afghanistan essentially in the exact same place where it began.
More than though, the USA is not what it once was. Eclipsed by China, rife with internal division, and reeling from an economic slide. The Taliban’s win in Afghanistan may be bad, but the renewal of bases for Al Qeida and ISIS essentially means that this was no mere withdrawal, but rather a retreat and a surrender.
If Al Qeida succeeds in another spectacular attack, the USA will certainly retaliate, but the lack of societal cohesiveness gives it no staying power against the patient terror group. Chaos appears to be the newest trend, with no telling which direction anything is going.