Irish Examiner view: Afghanistan disaster will have consequences for us all

Militiamen loyal to Ahmad Massoud, son of the late Ahmad Shah Massoud, take part in a training exercise, in Panjshir province, northeastern Afghanistan, Monday. Picture: AP Photo/Jalaluddin Sekandar

The grievous scenes in Kabul and beyond are agonising from the perspective of pure humanity, but they also mark an event which will have invidious and long-lasting impacts on the abject failure of Western democratic leadership, and a demonstrable lack of competency among those politicians and administrators responsible.

Principal among those must be US president Joe Biden, who has made Jimmy Carter’s management of the Tehran hostage crisis in 1979 appear measured and statesmanlike.