Keeping up appearances…in Afghanistan

Joe Biden has a lot of incoming, as we used to say when we were hunkered into the now-shuttered US Embassy in Kabul.

A good example is the statement issued by Norbert Röttgen, chairman of the German parliament’s foreign relations committee. “I say this with a heavy heart and with horror over what is happening, but the early withdrawal was a serious and far-reaching miscalculation by the current administration,” he said. “This does fundamental damage to the political and moral credibility of the West.”

With some Afghans mourning the Taliban’s return to power and struggling to find refuge anywhere they can find, that’s all Mr Röttgen could think to lament.

What does any of this really mean? Let’s parse President Biden’s incoming for what it is.

It’s about ego and an exaggerated sense of western capabilities.

First, the ego. In general, there is acute embarrassment in western capitals that the Afghan operation ended as it did. Not suddenly — the end didn’t come suddenly, it was telegraphed by…