Few words uttered by an American president have been shown more quickly to be so grotesquely misleading than President Biden’s claim shortly after he took office that “America is back”. Unless, that is, you define ‘back’ as dishonourable, incompetent, lying and shameful.
The chaotic scuttling of the US from Afghanistan will have an appalling impact on the Aghans, whom he has so brazenly betrayed. But its impact will extend far beyond Afghanistan. More generally, the West has been exposed as fickle and untrustworthy.
We do not honour our obligations. And what dictator, what brutal regime, will quake now when we demand change? We can have all the firepower in the world but if the threat behind it is not credible, it might as well be a sling and a stone.
For Israel there is a specific danger. Anshel Pfeffer writes this week about the issues posed by Lebanon’s collapse. These will be exacerbated by the Taliban, which is now hugely rich and which will surely give support to terror groups.
