In the days before a suicide bomber killed 13 service personnel at Kabul airport in 2021, U.S. military commanders were aware of the threat and twice missed chances to take out the deadly terrorist network behind the plot, according to a new book.

The Taliban, who had seized control of Afghanistan, refused a request to raid a hotel that was a known staging post for ISIS-K, who carried out the atrocity.

And at around the same time, superior officers vetoed a plan for a drone strike elsewhere because of the ‘negative response’ of the Taliban to such a raid.

Taken together, the shocking conclusion is that the bloodiest moment in President Joe Biden’s presidency might have been avoided if American troops had not been reliant on their enemy for protection in the final days of the evacuation.