THE siege of Kabul airport and an inadequate US president were the aspects of the Afghan situation raised by columnists in the newspapers.
The Daily Mail
Richard Littlejohn said the siege of Kabul airport 2021 was a farce, a ‘remake of Carry On Up The Khyber, the wonderful satire on the last days of the Raj.’
“This is not just a Very British Farce, however. It is also a global disaster,” he said. “What we are witnessing is far more serious than the last days of the Raj. It’s the collapse of the Anglosphere, Churchill’s celebrated alliance of the English speaking peoples, which until now has kept the world safe from tyranny.”
He said president Joe Biden America has abdicated its role as the world’s policeman.
“Without America, Nato is a busted flush,” he said. “Like the 3rd Foot and Mouth in Carry On Up The Khyber, the world has spotted that we’ve got nothing on under our kilts. And that is a real tragedy.”
The Daily Express
Ross Clark said Joe Biden was supposed to be the statesman who would restore dignity and competence to the office of President of the United States.
“How forlorn those hopes look now after America has suffered one of its greatest humiliations in its modern history,” he said. “The enduring image of the panicked US withdrawal after 20 years of trying to rebuild Afghanistan will be the desperate figures trying to cling to a plane as it taxied at Kabul airport – and the sight of at least two of them plunging to their deaths after it took off.”
He said Biden had reacted with a strange aggressiveness when asked for his response to the scenes at the airport.
“Whether Biden would have made a better president in his mid-60s, when he was Barack Obama’s vice-president, no one will ever know, but he certainly isn’t capable now,” he said. “Rather he has the air of a once-important man who is now deep into retirement, with a failing grip on his past achievements. In his panicked withdrawal, Biden hasn’t just failed at nation-building – he has failed at America’s aim: to prevent it becoming a haven for terrorists. Terror groups can now count on being safe there: there is no way that Biden is going to send his forces back in.”
The Guardian
Simon Jenkins said the US – with Britain as its lackey – committed liberal interventionism’s cardinal sin: half-heartedness.
“The craving to intervene is always followed by a craving to withdraw,” he said. “Traditional empires at least pretended they would never leave. As it was, Afghanistan replicated departures from India, South Africa, Hong Kong and Iraq. If you invade and conquer an alien state, you own it, but must then disown it.
“Western rule has killed an estimated 240,000 in Afghanistan since 2001, more than the Taliban ever did. It has not left morality, just a mess. There is no such thing as a global policeman. Individual nations best serve humanity by example or charity, not by war. “
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