With the execution by drone of al-Qaeda chief, Ayman al-Zawahiri, the terrorist group is back in the news. However, beyond issuing a set of attention-getting videos filled with dire and unfulfilled threats, al-Qaeda’s record of accomplishment since 9/11 has been meager.

It has served as something of an inspiration to some Islamic extremists around the world who have wanted to glory in the success of 9/11 and to wear the al-Qaeda label. But it has exerted little control over them, and they mostly have maintained a local perspective rather than the global one al-Qaeda prefers.

For the most part, al-Qaeda tends to resemble Lee Harvey Oswald, the assassin of John F. Kennedy: a fundamentally trivial entity that got horribly lucky once.

Yet, to defend against an enemy, or monster, that scarcely existed, the United States has waged wars in the Middle East that have cost trillions of dollars and led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands while erecting a massive security apparatus at home.

For further commentary on this issue, see: How a cottage terrorism industry made a lion out of an al-Qaeda mouse (Responsible Statecraft)