On September 11, 2001 the global Jihadist movement attacked our world, as we knew it and our consciousness, as we lived it. Now, ten years later, thanks in part to the Arab Spring and the Navy Seals killing Osama bin Laden, that group appears to be in crisis. Western-backed dictators are finally falling, so you would think that Al Qaeda might be closer to its goal of defeating the infidels and building Islamic states. But the revolutions have empowered the group's chief rivals: Islamist parliamentarians, who are more prone to use ballots, than bullets.
Furthermore, it appears that information discovered in Osama bin Laden's Pakistani safe house, which was not that safe for him after all is said and done, now suggests that US officials were overstating al Qaeda's power for that entire decade. We appeared to have spent lots of money protecting this country from a group that spent more time dodging drone strikes than trying to deliver a dirty bomb.