U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday hailed what he called the “extraordinary success” of the mission to airlift Americans, Afghans, and other foreigners to safety over the past two weeks. But as he spoke…efforts by thousands of former military members, diplomatic personnel, and leaders of NGOs ramped up to get stranded Americans and Afghans out of a country now under Taliban control…

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But a door is closing to make that happen, say experts, and the United States isn’t doing enough to facilitate continued departures. Experts involved in ongoing extractions say the State Department is actually making the process more difficult by imposing new requirements on countries in the region…

The U.S. military’s hasty retreat from the Kabul airport has left “initial estimates at 15,000 Americans stranded in dangerous areas controlled by a brutal enemy along with 25,000 Afghan citizens who supported American forces,” said 90 retired U.S. generals and admirals in an open letter released this week. The officers…called for the resignation of the secretary of defense and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff “based on negligence in performing their duties.”

The administration puts the number needing evacuation far lower, with Biden on Tuesday saying “about 100 to 200 Americans remain in Afghanistan with some intention to leave.” Those numbers are widely disputed…

The overall numbers do not include Afghans who worked with U.S.-backed nonprofits or groups subject in the past to Taliban atrocities…

“…Something is happening with the State Department that is very troubling,” said Bob Hedlund, CEO at Joint Development Associates International, a Colorado-based nonprofit operating in Afghanistan…

Hedlund for weeks has worked round-the-clock to get remaining staff out of the country. Now searching for charter flights or overland routes, Hedlund said he is running into new U.S. rules each step of the way.

Those with SIVs, for example, as of this week must have the actual visa stamped and pasted into their passport. Yet with the U.S. Embassy in Kabul closed since early August, that’s an impossible requirement to meet.

In one case, a staff member who applied for SIV status in 2018 received an approval letter dated Aug. 22, 2021. The letter…allowed the Afghan to pass through Taliban checkpoints into the Kabul airport area last week, but then she was denied access to waiting flights through U.S.-managed gates…

U.S. control over the exit process has continued even after the last American soldier departed the Kabul airport. Afghans say they cannot carry documentation the United States demands without risking capture from the Taliban. To apply for humanitarian parole Afghans must arrive with multiple forms, bank records, and passport-sized photos, including a cover sheet printed “on brightly colored paper,” according to distributed U.S. immigration guidelines. (The process also requires a $575 check per person made out to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.)…

U.S. rules are one of the reasons some countries that only days ago were willing to accept Afghans are closing borders or limiting flights and access….

Helping to head a group coordinating evacuations focused on religious minorities and other vulnerable Afghans is Sam Brownback, the former U.S. ambassador for international religious freedom….“Recent history shows us what happens when the U.S. withdraws and ISIS and other terror groups move in,” Brownback said. “The end result is genocide, and it is imperative that we in the West do all we can to prevent the slaughter of innocent Afghans.”…

Brownback said in a statement released Tuesday that with completion of the U.S. withdrawal, “the humanitarian crisis is likely only just beginning.”…

The United States so far has refused to join an effort backed by France, Britain, and Germany to establish a UN-sponsored safe zone in Kabul for continued evacuations…

Please share a prayer in the comments below for Senator Brownback and all those still working to expedite people out of the country.

(Excerpt from World. Article by Mindy Belz. Photo Credit: MoD Crown Copyright via Getty Images).