The British want to blame anyone for the chaos in Afghanistan except ourselves | Simon jenkins

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Who can we blame? There must be someone. When disaster is everywhere, democracy thirsts for a culprit, someone to carry the can. Last weekend saw an orgy of blame: from Boris Johnson, Joe Biden, Dominic Raab (British Foreign Secretary), his ambassadors, NATO and the West in general, not to mention George Bush and Tony Blair. Afghanistan was supposed to be the right intervention, the one that worked. Yet the nation we spent 20 years building suddenly collapsed. Where are the architects?

Victory has many parents, defeat is an orphan. Nothing seemed so lonely this past weekend as the building of the Afghan nation. But while tyrants who fail can be overthrown, democracy rightly diffuses responsibility. It’s fine to accuse Biden or Johnson or their predecessors. We elected them. When things were going well, the West trumpeted its values ​​and congratulated itself. It was obviously superior.

The purpose of blame is usually to avoid repeating the mistake. Almost unbelievable, Johnson doesn’t think it was a mistake. He said this weekend that the Afghan expedition was not about the Afghans but Britain, to protect the UK from harm. Proof of success, no terrorist attack has been launched from Afghan soil against a Western country in 20 years. Neither has there been an attack from Iranian, Syrian or Saudi soil, without spending 37 billion and causing the death of thousands of Afghans. Most of the terrorist attacks on Britain have come from inside Britain, but Johnson has not mentioned it. What idiotic intelligence chief advises Downing Street these days, and what consolation is Johnson’s smugness for the families of thousands of dead Afghans?

Britain may not be well governed right now, but it is a world champion to blame. He messes up constantly but then makes the most beautiful public inquiries. Every disaster, from Bloody Sunday to infected blood, to Hillsborough and Grenfell Tower, has thrown armies of lawyers into the breach. The battalions arming themselves for the Covid will now be joined by those rushing into Afghanistan. Victims may be left in their misery, but lawyers will stagger to their bank. Everyone will say that lessons will be learned.

They won’t do it if they confine themselves to the poor guys who ended up in the front line at the end. For Britain, Afghanistan has never been a neo-imperial fantasy disguised as an anti-terrorism. Huge sums of money were spent to support the occupation and convince Afghans that NATO would create a democracy resistant to resurgent Islamic fundamentalism.

The British have applauded this enterprise almost universally. They voted for its authors. They made fun of the values ​​of his enemies for perfectly valid reasons. They are now desperate to shirk responsibility for failure. But the blame lies with Western democracy in its most arrogant and interventionist form. Blaming Biden and Johnson for not hiding it is absurd.

Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist

The Fall of Afghanistan: Take part in an online Guardian Live event with our reporters Emma Graham-Harrison, Peter Beaumont and Julian Borger analyzing the latest developments. Monday September 6 at 7 p.m. BST. Book your tickets here. All profits will be donated to relevant charities.

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