John Daniel Davidson of the Federalist places the Afghanistan debacle in context.

The fall of Kabul has exposed, in horrifying and dramatic fashion, the incompetence and folly of the Biden administration.

The reports and images coming out of Afghanistan are dire. As many as 10,000 American citizens are trapped behind enemy lines, stranded in and around Kabul in what amounts to a massive hostage crisis. It remains unclear whether they will be allowed to leave or even if they can even make it to the airport safely.

Moreover, tens of thousands of Afghans who worked with the U.S. military are also trying to leave before the Taliban find them and their families. The White House seems to have no plan to get any of these people out, and the Pentagon has suggested it might not be able to do so.

All of this speaks to the corruption and ineptitude of American political and military leadership, for which Biden and his deputies must be made to answer. But the reactions to these events, not just from our political leaders but also from our tech and media elites, have exposed a deeper rot: the weakness and moral bankruptcy of the west, and the hollowness of modern secular liberalism.

For days now, liberal news outlets have been repeating, as if to reassure us, that the Taliban have pledged to respect women’s rights, “within the framework of Islamic law.” But we all know what that means. Already there are reports of Afghan women and girls being forced into “marriages” with Taliban fighters, the closure of girls’ schools, and the killing of a woman who appeared in public without a head covering — likely the first of many. …

… But if ensuring Afghan women’s rights was really a priority for the leaders of these countries, they would have seen to it that the Taliban, of all people, didn’t seize control of Afghanistan.