Opinion

Taliban victory signals a defeat for global jihadism

If the US continues to pull back from the 9/11 wars, and declines to be provoked into open-ended conflicts with foggy goals, jihadis will find it more difficult to bring the killing fields of the East to the West.

David GardnerContributor

Updated Sep 8, 2021 – 9.43am, first published at 9.40am

Email LinkedIn Twitter Facebook

Subscribe to gift this article

Gift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe.

Subscribe now

Already a subscriber?

Twenty years on, the US and its allies’ response to the outrage of the 9/11 attacks is back where it started: with the Taliban in control of Afghanistan.

The 21st-century crusade against Islamist jihadis would seem to have changed little. Yet a lot is different, although little of it for the better.

Financial Times

David Gardner is the international affairs editor at the FT. He has been chief leader writer, Middle East editor, and a correspondent in Europe, Latin America and South Asia.