When Kabul fell to the Taliban several days ago, rocking President Joe Biden's pullout operation, the White House made a strategic choice: They doubled down, didn’t apologize and crossed their fingers that the nation would move on quickly.

Now, 13 U.S. service members are dead following a pair of suicide bombs — the first U.S. troops to be killed in Afghanistan in 18 months — as are 95 Afghans. The attack, carried out by ISIS-K, is the deadliest assault on U.S. troops in the country in a decade.

Raghu Manavalan is the host of POLITICO's Playbook.
Jenny Ament is the senior producer for POLITICO Audio.
Irene Noguchi is the executive producer of POLITICO Audio.

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