Gen. Petraeus and the $2000 Payoff

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/columns/pressingissues_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003582573

Until recently, the press has rarely covered the U.S. military program that occasionally offers “condolence” payments to Iraqis and Afghans whose loved ones have been killed or injured by our troops. But a number of high-profile incidents involving the killing of noncombatants has drawn some long-overdue, if fleeting, attention to the subject.

On Tuesday, in the latest example, the U.S. military apologized for a not-accidental slaughter near Jalalabad back in March and agreed to make the usual maximum payment – don’t laugh – of about $2000 to survivors for each of the 19 Afghan lives lost.

That’s an improvement in some ways. Last month I titled a column on this subject, “Sorry We Shot Your Kid, Here’s $500,” referring to a documented case in Iraq.

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This also serves to reminds us of several disturbing questions: How many innocent Iraqis have been killed or injured, accidentally or on purpose, by our troops? And what is the price of a human life – in our view, and in the view of the survivors whose hearts and minds we are attempting to win?