Parochial complacency define the prime minister’s view of the world, leaving him unequal to the crisis in Afghanistan
The prime minister told parliament on Wednesday that Britain was prepared for the fall of Kabul and also that it could not have been foreseen. Those two things cannot be true simultaneously. Both were false. The pace of events after US forces were withdrawn might have caught western governments by surprise, but the withdrawal itself has been on the international timetable since February 2020.
That it was agreed by Donald Trump is not an excuse for his successor’s misjudgements. But nor are Joe Biden’s actions a justification for Boris Johnson’s complacency in failing to plan a response. As recently as July, the prime minister asserted that the Taliban had no military route to victory.