"You're heading back to Kabul because you expect more attacks," people say, noting the approaching anniversary of 911.

No, I reply. Al Qaeda has been disrupted inside Afghanistan to an extent that any officers who may remain there are probably unable to co-ordinate anything of the scale of last year's terrorist attacks in the United States.

Twelve months on, it's time to assess the changes inside Afghanistan and ask Afghans what they feel about the future.

One man I know is Mr Basir, a schoolteacher from Jalalabad. He had 21 young children under his care and always resented the Taliban.

The children were mostly nephews and nieces, inherited after the early deaths of his brothers.

But under the Taliban's work rules, Mr Basir was the only individual able to earn money in that unfortunate family.

The widowed mothers, who would have welcomed a chance to earn an extra penny, were banned from doing so. And their daughters were growing up with little education and bleak prospects.

Things are different now in many areas.

Schools are open to girls. Men and women medical staff are allowed to work together.

And for single or bereaved women, UN agencies have expanded their sponsorship of bread bakeries employing widows, while some charities are sending to Kabul sewing machines and cloth to help in seamstress training.

Taliban government ministers used to insist they were not opposed to assistance of this kind.

But aid workers found that Taliban administrative incompetence often frustrated their efforts.

They would find, for example, programmes closed down overnight on the strength of a religious ruling.

Outside questions of faith, there were few Taliban ministers who were not considered out of their depth in their areas of responsibility.

Whether it was education, welfare or foreign trade, Taliban-ruled Afghanistan never achieved anything like normal-world status.

So, after several months of having a new government, Afghans have seen that there's an alternative.

But the economy and social situation are by no means rosy.

In some districts, returning refugees have stripped pistachio trees for firewood, damaging that economically important crop this year.

And the challenge of taking young men out of military fatigues remains a tough one. There just aren't many jobs to give them.

So, for Afghans, the picture may be a mixed one.

As for Singapore and other nations that Al Qaeda may have targeted: Are they safe now from planned disruptions, ordered or financed from inside Afghanistan?

Undoubtedly, some Al Qaeda supporters remain on Afghan soil.

Certainly many Afghans themselves had great respect for the aims and ideals of the Taliban, Al Qaeda's protectors. But the two groups were never the same thing, and if Afghanistan has moved on from the Taliban, it has firmly ceased to be a home for
Al Qaeda.

Even if Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden is still alive, he knows there's a large price on his head.

Ordinary Afghans know that too, making life hard for any non-Afghans living there. (Many Al Qaeda members were Arabs, and, to locals, they stood out).

But more than this, Afghans should know that the isolation of the past few years has been broken.