They`ve had a grueling long war against the Americans and I think it was found I think to the sheer persistence of the U.S. presence there that they
begin to find themselves fractured, to be undefined their command structure damaged. And the death of Mullah Omar I think was a moment when many began
to ask, well, what is this movement? What is its future?
While ISIS finding a foothold there while the Taliban had been ground down, they`ve been in lengthy brutal war, they`re fractured. So, there was a
space there in which disgruntled Afghans felt Taliban wasn`t radical enough or perhaps too corrupt, shifted their allegiance towards ISIS.
Part of the problem Afghanistan faces is that it`s being such an extraordinarily lengthy war for the United States, the longest they`ve ever
fought. So, now, sustaining public interest from public support for continued military operations is extraordinarily difficult. So, it will
most likely see a significant resurgence for Taliban.
The Taliban are a threat because they don`t bring stability to Afghanistan. They don`t bring the kind of Afghanistan that the West wanted to leave in
its wake after the billions spent there and the thousands of lives which the West voted to try to sort Afghanistan out. But are the Taliban
plotting this day attacks against the West? It doesn`t seem to be the case, not unless it meant very different is going on that people are
unaware about.