The article does not say Al Qaeda would have remained in force. The US could have still targeted Al Qaeda and searched for UBL while also negotiating a surrende

The article does not say Al Qaeda would have remained in force. The US could have still targeted Al Qaeda and searched for UBL while also negotiating a surrender of the Taliban. While we don’t have a control, it is pretty obvious that the heavy-handed invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq were powerful recruitment tools for Al Qaeda, likely making them more dangerous than if we had focused on targeting them and not occupying two Muslim countries.