President Joe Biden has no regrets about withdrawing American combat troops from Afghanistan. And he used the drone strike that killed longtime al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri in Kabul as the latest evidence affirming the wisdom of his decision.

“After 20 years of war, the United States no longer needed thousands of boots on the ground in Afghanistan to protect America from terrorists who seek to do us harm,” he said in announcing the strike. “And I made a promise to the American people that we’d continue to conduct effective counterterrorism operations in Afghanistan and beyond. We’ve done just that.”

But what is life like for the Afghan people? Reasonable arguments can be made about what the United States owes Afghanistan following two decades of occupation. But one year after the military withdrawal, it’s clear that existence under Taliban rule has deteriorated across a range of measures — from the economy and security situation to human rights and governance.

To the surprise of few, the Taliban has been unable to stabilize Afghanistan’s economy and the nature of the Taliban’s draconian rule has scared off both foreign aid and potential investors. Taliban leaders remain under sanctions and, while they have experience commanding an insurgency, know little about financial markets or the trappings of managing a modern economy. Afghanistan’s nearly 40 million people are at risk of falling below the poverty line.

Related to the economic collapse, half of Afghanistan’s population is facing critical food shortages and acute hunger. Over the winter, there were credible reports about Afghan families selling their children in order to get money to survive.

Meanwhile, the one area where the Taliban actually has experience and skill — fighting and armed conflict — has not been enough to keep an aggressive insurgency at bay. Islamic State Khorasan (ISK), the Islamic State’s Afghan branch, has wreaked havoc throughout Afghanistan, waging a guerrilla campaign of bombings, assassinations and suicide attacks that the Taliban has been unable to combat. ISK has also waged a relentless campaign of bombings targeting Afghanistan’s Shia Hazara minority.

Although Afghanistan has not immediately devolved into a failed state from which transnational terrorist groups can launch attacks with impunity, senior U.S. defense and intelligence officials are growing concerned that jihadist groups like al Qaeda and ISK may develop those capabilities over the coming months. Many assessments, including that of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, place the timeframe at between 12 and 36 months for jihadist groups to rebuild their external attack capabilities. In late June, CENTCOM Commander Gen. Michael Kurilla claimed the U.S. was in possession of intelligence confirming that terrorist groups are already building training camps inside Afghanistan.

Beyond a deterioration of economic and physical security, there has been an erosion of human rights under the Taliban regime, especially for women and girls.

The fact that Zawahri was comfortable traveling to Afghanistan’s capital Kabul merely shows how close al Qaeda and the Taliban remain. Despite the vague statements that accompany the Doha agreement that the Taliban would break with al Qaeda, that has not happened, and indeed many argue that the two groups are just as close as ever.

Beyond a deterioration of economic and physical security, there has been an erosion of human rights under the Taliban regime, especially for women and girls. The United Nations Mission in Afghanistan released a report detailing extrajudicial killings, torture, arbitrary arrests and detentions, and myriad other violations of fundamental freedoms by the Taliban. Girls have been banned from attending secondary school, while women have seen their right to access the workplace and participate in public life significantly diminished.

Afghan girls read the Quran in the Noor Mosque outside Kabul.