UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has denied that his government failed to predict or prepare for the crisis in Afghanistan. Talking to a packed Parliament—recalled for a debate on Afghanistan—Johnson defended the longer-term withdrawal of troops, saying that the “hard reality” was that there was no will among allies to continue operations without the Americans. The prime minister was frequently interrupted (in accordance with parliamentary procedure) by MPs from both benches in the emotionally-heated session of parliament—the first full in-person sitting since the start of the pandemic. In one interruption, Tory MP Mark Harper said that there had been a “catastrophic failure of our intelligence or our assessment of the intelligence because of the speed that this has caught us unawares.” In response Johnson said: “I think it would be fair to say that the events in Afghanistan have unfolded and the collapse has been faster than even the Taliban themselves …