A dark week for decency, honour and the world
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.
What dictator, what brutal regime, will quake now when we demand change?
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. Given we now know the dangerous and misguided reality of President Biden’s foreign policy, it might seem no bad thing if his administration starts to turn away from the Middle East. The Abraham Accords — the most farreaching and positive change in the region for many years — came, after all, under President Trump. But it is never a good thing for peace and freedom anywhere when the US is weakened and turns in on itself. This has been a dark week for decency and honour.