The fault lies with western democracy at its most arrogant and interventionist
Who can we blame? There must be someone. When disaster lies all around, democracy craves a culprit, someone to carry the can. This past weekend has seen an orgy of blaming: of Boris Johnson, Joe Biden, Dominic Raab (Britain’s foreign secretary), his ambassadors, Nato and the west generally, not to mention George Bush and Tony Blair. Afghanistan was supposed to be the “good” intervention, the one that worked. Yet the “nation” we spent 20 years building has suddenly collapsed. Where are the architects?
Victory has many parents, defeat is an orphan. Nothing looked as lonely this past weekend as “Afghan nation-building”. But whereas tyrants who fail can be toppled, democracy rightly diffuses responsibility. It is all very well accusing Biden or Johnson or their predecessors. We elected them. When things went well, the west trumpeted its values and patted itself on the back. It was so evidently superior.
