CIVIC: Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict

NATO MUST FOLLOW U.S. LEAD IN HELPING AFGHAN CIVILIANS

By Sarah Holewinski

In Kabul a few weeks ago, I met Sahib Dad, an Afghan father. During the 2001 U.S. invasion, two of his girls were killed when a U.S. bomb missed its target and exploded in their playground. He says he never saw an American face, never received an apology. At the time, the United States had no program in place to provide compensation for his loss or aid for his family. Meanwhile, the Taliban brought cotton to wrap the dead and food, money and medical care for his wife's severe head injury. That's straight out of the insurgency playbook. And it's one reason the insurgents are winning small battles everyday.

There is still time to avoid defeat (or a bloody debacle) in Afghanistan. But NATO forces, which in October took command of military operations there from the United States, must recognize what America has learned the hard way in Iraq: You can't win the war if you don't win the people.

Because of its experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States is gradually, and belatedly, accepting what is still a radical principle in modern warfare — that militaries have a responsibility to compensate and comfort the civilians they harm, even if the harm is accidental. The U.S. military now hands out condolence payments for loss of life, injury and property. The payments are characterized in the military lawyer's handbook as a "symbolic gesture" only, but it's a gesture that is so important. The payments — usually a few thousand dollars — don't assign blame. They show compassion for families struggling with loss.

The rationale of helping those we harm is expressed in the new U.S. Army Field Manual on Counterinsurgency — the definitive guide for boots on the ground. The manual states that in modern guerrilla warfare, a clear offense is winning "hearts and minds" of the populace. Troops are told that any actions that undermine the trust of the population — "even those that provide a short-term military advantage" — help the enemy. But the new NATO force in Afghanistan, with troops drawn largely from European countries, has no policy and dedicates no common funds to help Afghan civilians harmed by its operations. Alliance officials should publicly correct that oversight and do so quickly.

Bolstering U.S. programs in place to help war victims is easy enough with an influx of cash by NATO countries, and nobody — least of all Afghan widows, orphans, the injured — has time to wait for a reinvented wheel. Every civilian death gives the insurgency ammunition to claim that NATO forces are the enemy of the Afghan people — particularly if nothing is done to rectify the harm.

NATO officials have blamed much of their collateral damage on the Taliban, pointing out that civilians are being used as human shields. Despite the difficulties that troops face distinguishing friend from foe, when bombs from the air kill non-combatants, Afghans naturally blame those who dropped the bombs. Two weeks ago, Afghan President Hamid Karzai wept during a televised speech at the loss of innocent Afghan lives in the midst of coalition bombing of terrorist strongholds. He has strongly urged foreign troops to exercise more caution. NATO officials can and should respond with a pledge of more than words.

The point is not to put a dollar value on human lives, but to offer a gesture of respect reflecting a sense of common humanity — and to recognize the simple truth that Afghanistan will be won one civilian at a time.

Sarah Holewinski is executive director of CIVIC — Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict.