An Urgent Need

Rebuilding Afghanistan will be a massive task requiring years and many billions of dollars. But the job could be under way, and pay quick dividends, if the United States were to respond promptly to petitions for relief by hundreds of Afghans who lost loved ones or property as a result of U.S. bombing attacks.

Evidence of the extent of the loss is anecdotal ‹ U.S. officials have so far begun no formal inventory ‹ but compelling. Global Exchange, a San Francisco-based human rights group, has investigated conditions on the ground and identified about 500 families hurt by the bombing and estimates the total number of victims at around 2,000. Assuming the latter figure, it would cost about $20 million to pay for rebuilding houses, providing medical care and paying other costs for those affected ‹ roughly the amount expended in a single day of bombing.

But so far advocates for a compensation fund have made little headway. A U.S. Embassy official in Kabul has received no reply from the Pentagon or State Department to a request for action. The leader of a bipartisan congressional team recently in Afghanistan, California Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, says America must "do what's right for the people of Afghanistan." But so far, nothing.

Expediting aid for these victims is not only right, it's politically wise. Most Afghans realize that the "collateral damage" they've suffered is an inevitable consequence of the war that freed them from the oppressive Taliban regime. But their anger is rising because they cannot understand why Washington has not moved to help a necessary war's most innocent victims.

The problem is worsening as Afghans who fled the country return home, often to find houses destroyed, work unavailable and the food aid promised by the outside world inadequate to people's needs. In that context, cutting through the red tape and setting up a compensation fund would be the wisest investment this country could make in a country that both owes America a debt of gratitude and deserves help in cleaning up the mess that wars always create.