Just last week, Biden’s Pentagon vowed to step up their efforts in recovering the Americans still trapped in Afghanistan but that was last week… Today is a new day and the US State Department has determined that families of US serviced members are not qualified to evacuate.
The announcement came just Monday and affects roughly about 60 US service members:
“They were all evaluated and thus far, in the evaluation, none have been determined to be eligible for parolee status,” Kirby said Monday, referencing the government’s term for Afghans who qualify for evacuation as direct relatives of U.S. citizens or residents.
The Pentagon, which has successfully helped evacuate other relatives, did not say how many family members the State Department reviews this month affected. The numbers have been a shifting target since the complete U.S. military withdrawal on Aug. 30.
Many of the troops who have attempted to get relatives evacuated were Afghan interpreters who immigrated to the U.S. and enlisted. The State Department is in charge of determining whether Afghans qualify for “parole” and evacuation. They must be the spouse or child under 21 years old of a U.S. citizen or resident, according to the agency’s criteria.”
Meanwhile, the country continues to destabilize as it battles with ISIS-K:
“The Taliban has expanded its shadowy war against the Islamic State branch in Afghanistan, deploying hundreds more fighters to this eastern province in an increasingly violent fight and critical test of the group’s counterterrorism abilities after the U.S. troop withdrawal.
More than 1,300 additional Taliban fighters have been deployed to Nangahar province in the past month with orders to increase the tempo of operations, according to Taliban security officials. Taliban night raids against suspected Islamic State-Khorasan members are on the rise, and many of the hundreds arrested have disappeared or turned up dead, according to Jalalabad residents and Taliban fighters.”
Erica Carlin is an independent journalist, opinion writer and contributor to several news and opinion sources. She is based in Georgia.
