I was watching the news on Monday night when an item came up on the bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Kabul. As horrifying as that news was, I was even more struck by something even more unbelievable.The footage of the bombed out headquarters showed the glass in the front of the structure had been blown out, but there were large shards of glass still remaining in situ. For someone in the architectural glass industry this could only mean that the glass was not tempered or laminated.

If the glass had been tempered, it would have fallen out in tiny fragments. If it has been laminated, it would have remained intact even when broken because of the interlayer.

What does this tell us about the effort being made by Western countries and the future of Afghanistan? Well, it’s clear to me that we hear a lot about the importance of security in this war-torn country, but we can’t be bothered to provide security glass for the headquarters building of the United Nations.

That’s a disgrace. I know the government has made a lot of plans and spent a lot of money to upgrade embassies and other U.S. facilities around the globe, which they should given the current climate. And certainly the UN should do the same.