From the wreckage of Afghanistan. By Greg Sheridan.

Those who fell to their deaths in New York, and those who fell to their deaths at Kabul airport, had one thing in common. They were fleeing the fires of Islamist terror. …

Joe Biden, in crafting the most incompetent, counter-productive, irresponsible, outright destructive withdrawal anyone could imagine – the Taliban could not have choreographed a more favourable sequence of mistakes by the US in its wildest dreams – has threatened not only US credibility but the image of basic US competence. …

Australia’s rescue efforts:

On top of the 600 to 800 rescues Canberra would like to do, which will be incredibly difficult and depend on the fragile temporary arrangements at Kabul airport, it has already announced 3000 places for Afghans in our special humanitarian program. As well, no Afghans currently in Australia will be forced to return to Afghanistan while the situation is anything like it is today. …

Compare that to Saigon:

Scott Morrison is behaving infinitely better, with much greater moral and human decency, than Gough Whitlam did in relation to the fall of Saigon in 1975. There may be criticism of Morrison for not moving fast enough, but he has 100 per cent recognised in principle Australia’s obligations. In shocking contrast, Whitlam, at the fall of South Vietnam to invasion by communist North Vietnam in 1975, determined to take almost no South Vietnamese at all, including those who had worked full time at the Australian embassy and for the Australian military. …

It was monumental malice, one of the most savagely disgraceful episodes in Australian history. Whitlam said he would not have “those Vietnamese Balts with their religious and political prejudices against us” coming into the country. And he subsequently disparaged and defamed Vietnamese refugees.

In 1975, people fled communism, just as today they flee Islamist extremism. In both cases, they knew exactly what they were fleeing from.