On its face, last month’s strike on al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri proved U.S. forces can still carry out military and intelligence missions in Afghanistan even with American boots no longer on the ground.
Beneath the surface, however, counterterrorism insiders and foreign policy analysts say the bombing of al-Zawahri’s safehouse in Kabul only exposed much deeper long-term problems for the U.S and the seemingly never-ending fight against radical Islamic extremism. Chief among them are the clear links between the Taliban and al Qaeda, which some specialists describe as virtually unbreakable and likely to grow even stronger as more time passes, with the Taliban cementing their rule and no steady U.