A quarter-century after the September 11 attacks were planned on Afghan soil, the Taliban once again governs Afghanistan — this time armed with the very weapons American taxpayers funded to prevent such an outcome. Five years after the 2021 U.S. withdrawal, Taliban fighters patrol Kabul in American vehicles and carry American rifles, the inherited inventory of a collapsed Afghan military. The circularity is difficult to ignore: the mission launched to deny Afghanistan as a sanctuary for terror has concluded with its adversary better equipped than ever before.