Remember the group that killed nearly 3,000 Americans? Remember the rage and anger, and the determination to make sure that we destroy the group to make sure that it never happens again?
Maybe Americans have forgotten. After all. Obama 'neutralized' al-Qaeda in 2011.

“It took us quite a few years before we were able to eliminate Osama bin Laden and the top leadership and neutralize them as an effective force,” Kerry insisted, which raises the rather surprising suggestion that al-Qaeda, still active around the world, is “neutralized” in the administration’s view.

There are countless ways that our Forever War on some Terror is insane, but these two articles I'm about to list perfectly encapsulate this craziness.
First of all, do you remember Afghanistan?

Al Qaeda training camps are reportedly reappearing in Afghanistan, where the US has been focused on fighting ISIS (also known as the Islamic State, ISIL, or Daesh) and the Taliban, according to The New York Times.

Really? 14 years, a trillion dollars, and 2,378 American lives later, al-Qaeda is right back to where it was in Afghanistan. Except even better positioned.

If the training camps had popped up several years ago, "they would have rocketed to the top of potential threats presented to President Obama in his daily intelligence briefing," The Times reports. "Now, they are just one of many — and perhaps, American officials say, not even the most urgent on the Pentagon’s list in Afghanistan."
And the newly strengthened Taliban could be a force multiplier for Al Qaeda. Michael Morell, the former deputy director of the CIA who recently wrote a book about US efforts to destroy Al Qaeda, told The Times that the Taliban will give Al Qaeda a safe haven in Afghanistan, as they did before the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on US soil.

This is just mind-blowing to me. Is there any better example of a complete and epic failure than this?

Well, now that you mention it, yes, there is an even better example.

Today, Al-Qaeda is not working alone. It’s getting help from one of the United States’ Middle East allies—Qatar. A little noticed event highlights Qatar’s influence.

Sure, our wonderful Gulf allies sends Nusra Front, the al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria, money and weapons, but that isn't what made this deal so awesome.

A prisoner swap between the Lebanese government and al-Qaeda's branch in Syria, Al-Nusra Front in early December showed how powerful the group has become on the ground. The deal released 16 Lebanese soldiers and police officers who were captured during a joint ISIS-al-Nusra operation along with 29 civilians, some of whom are known terrorists.
The heart of the agreement guarantees al-Nusra free reign inside what had been a safe haven in Lebanon’s Hamid valley, bordering Syria, with access to the Lebanese town of Arsal. After the deal was signed, TV footage broadcast by Al Jazeera Arabic showed an armed group of al-Qaeda fighters with the group's black banners cheering al-Qaeda’s victory. Lebanon’s Minister of Interior, Nouhad Machnouk, put it bluntly, saying Arsal is occupied by al-Nusra Front.
The official mediator in the Lebanese deal was the small Gulf country of Qatar, which hosts the advanced headquarters of the U.S. Central Command. Sources claim that Qatar paid al-Nusra $25 million and persuaded the terror group to accept the deal.

Say what?!? Say WHAT?!?!
Lebanon? Has the world gone insane?
Yes. Yes it has.

Three years after they were kicked out of several cities in south Yemen, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has come back and overrun two cities in the province of Abyan, local government officials and residents told Middle East Eye. But people who lived through al-Qaeda’s reign of Abyan in 2011 now talk about new “tolerant and friendly” militants.

Because when I think of al-Qaeda “tolerant and friendly” are the two words that come to mind.

Nowadays, instead of spending their days chasing intelligence officers or those who play music, al-Qaeda in Zinjibar has embarked on a “hearts and minds” campaign to convince people to embrace their rule.

Believe it or not, that is not an TheOnion article. That is actual news.
It's important to recall how small of an organization al-Qaeda was in 2001.

By 2001, al Qaeda still had no formal branches or franchises. Its membership included a core of just under 200 people, a 122-person martyrdom brigade, and several dozen foot soldiers recruited from the 700 or so graduates of its training camps.

Al-Qaeda in 2001 was so small that you could fit all of them into a high school gymnasium.
Al-Qaeda in 2001, just before we started dropping bombs on Afghanistan, occupied no territory and barely existed outside of rural Afghanistan.

Unlike 2001, al-Qaeda actually occupies territory, rules major cities, and has several self-declared Islamic Emirates. The largest of which are in Syria, Yemen, and Somalia.
These three groups, plus smaller affiliates, brings the number of hard-core al-Qaeda militants to around 20,000 today, up from a total of 200 just 14 years ago. And this doesn't include successful spin-off groups like ISIL, which has between 50,000 and 250,000 hard-core militants, depending on who's counting.
That's a 10,000% growth rate for al-Qaeda, which by any measure means they are doing something right. Or we are doing something very, very wrong.

But al-Qaeda is "not even the most urgent on the Pentagon’s list" anymore. I wonder what the families of the 9/11 victims might think about that?