Kabul: Biden’s credibility on the line

Why can’t the US honour its promises to those in severe danger?

I spent much of yesterday in London, in a transnational communications loop with Afghans trying to flee via Kabul Airport. Some were beaten, some were crushed. None got into the airport — despite being in real-time comms with senior US officials and the military.

We all failed — and will fail again unless something changes. As a result, right now, the whole of geopolitics is balanced on the pinhead of Kabul.

As Joe Biden said yesterday: no country but the USA could project force with the precision that’s being shown in the Kabul airlift. But it is still failing.

And while voters have not yet processed the West’s strategic defeat in Afghanistan, they will very easily process the operational debacle in Kabul, and draw political conclusions from it.

They will do so not least because hundreds of journalists in Western capitals have friends, associates and colleagues struggling to get out. As commentators draw parallels with Saigon in 1975, veteran reporters are saying privately “it’s already worse”.

Many of the people crushed up against the concrete perimeter have exit visas issued by the USA. Many are on lists issued by the State Department. One I’ve…