Already rushing to get out of Dodge ahead of a self-imposed but Taliban enforced Aug. 31 deadline, this suicide attack looks likely to force Biden to further expedite his already-hurried evacuation. One week ago, Biden said that “any attack on our forces or disruption of our operations at the airport will be met with a swift and forceful response.” In response to a question on Thursday, Biden pledged, “We will not forgive. We will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay.” We’ll see. He suggested that the lethal attack—and more that may come—was an inevitable part of any withdrawal, which is certainly not what he was saying even weeks ago.

And he says that, even with only one gate into the airport remaining open, our evacuation will continue apace. Again, we’ll see. During a Thursday press conference, Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, commander of the U.S. Central Command, pledged numerous times that this attack will not deter us from accomplishing our “mission,” which, ironically, is to retreat. Later, on Thursday, Biden also made that point, saying, “We will not let them stop our mission. We will continue the evacuation.” He didn’t mention that only one gate into the airport remained open after the attack, with security outside of the gate in the hands of the Taliban.