President Joe Biden recently offered a new defense of his controversial 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan in an unsigned 12-page memo that the White House released amid religious holidays with little warning to U.S. officials or reporters.

Two weeks later, officials, veterans and volunteers who worked on the mission are still deeply frustrated, saying that Bidens narrative about Afghanistan is too focused on political point-scoring and that the administration should do more to tackle the ongoing crisis.

It felt like an eighth grader wrote it from the middle school cafeteria. I think the public deserved more of an answer, said a current service member who spent months helping evacuees from Afghanistan and called the document petty.

Theres a big portion of America thats still hurting about this. There are still people who are trying to get people out. Theres still so much work going on that [Washington] has forgotten about, added the service member, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of professional retaliation.

The White House statement is an unclassified summary of an after-action review that Biden directed across government agencies involved in the Afghan pull-out. The memo largely addresses how much responsibility Biden should bear for the way America ended its 20-year mission in Afghanistan with a two-week withdrawal in which 13 American service members and hundreds of Afghan civilians died and thousands of people eligible for U.S. evacuations were left behind.

The answer, according to the memo: not much. Before Biden withdrew U.S. forces from Afghanistan in August 2021 and Taliban militants took over the country, the administration carried out deliberate, intensive, rigorous, and inclusive planning, the statement argues, including preparing for a major evacuation starting in May 2021.

Instead of evaluating the Biden administrations internal debates and choices, the White House statement places significant blame on former President Donald Trump, noting that he signed a deal with the Taliban that set a deadline for U.S. forces to leave Afghanistan. Trump left no plan for a withdrawal or evacuation and damaged key national security institutions that had to implement the pull-out, according to the memo. Additionally, the memo raises questions about U.S. intelligence and military commanders, as well as Afghans themselves, saying Biden had little warning of a rapid Taliban takeover, let military personnel determine the operational details of the evacuation and tried without success to urge a stronger Afghan resistance to the Taliban.

Nine people who worked on the withdrawal and evacuation mission told HuffPost the White House statement offers a dishonest view of the situation. By emphasizing Trumps decisions, overlooking gaps in Bidens preparation and casting a shambolic moment as a success, the White House is fueling fresh frustration and hurting its credibility on Afghanistan even further, they argued.

Critics say Bidens team should acknowledge its mistakes and identify who made decisions that damaged the rescue effort, as well as address the trauma and humanitarian toll that their approach caused. Veterans and other volunteers who have spent years trying to save Afghan partners of the U.S. also want Biden to take immediate steps to make ongoing evacuation efforts easier.

From a military perspective and from even a citizens perspective its very difficult to believe in the [memo]... to believe in our country and to believe that I did the right thing in my youth, said Perry Blackburn, a retired lieutenant colonel who was one of the first soldiers to deploy to Afghanistan in 2001. The founder of a nonprofit called AFGFree that works on evacuation missions and aid, Blackburn wants Biden to change administrative policies to make it easier for vulnerable Afghans to resettle abroad.

The administration is tired of the issue, he said, adding: Were relentless, and they want to move on.

The memo and the resulting outrage come amid growing scrutiny of the withdrawal.

Republicans are using their control of the House of Representatives to pressure the Biden administration to release more information on its Afghan strategy and to hold high-profile hearings on the matter. Last month, the first hearing featured testimony from Sgt. Tyler Vargas-Andrews, who was severely wounded in the Aug. 26, 2021, terrorist attack on Kabul airport. He accused Biden of an inexcusable lack of accountability and negligence.