Max Abrahms

Think tank analysts have often referred to him as a savvy militant group leader, even a mastermind. Thats because he was the leader of the most feared terrorist group in the world.

There's a growing understanding that the idea of the caliphate is dying and more and more the leadership is calling on foreign fighters not even to come to Iraq and Syria but to go elsewhere or to commit violence locally.

It's indiscriminate about who can be a soldier of the caliphate ... and it's indiscriminate about which attacks the group will claim as its own.

Imagine if Match.com were set up in such a way that the people could never meet, clearly there's no replacement for actual socialization in person.

The cold truth is that Americans care much more about keeping safe from terrorism than the humanitarian nightmare unfolding in Afghanistan, this means that Americans can tolerate the Taliban even in Kabul so long as it’s not aiding al Qaeda in committing terrorism outside the region. I do not see the U.S. returning to Afghanistan unless there’s another mass casualty attack on the homeland. I hope the Taliban understands this hierarchy of American foreign policy interests.