Complaints about the massive amounts of damage US forces have done in Kandahar are nothing new, but this week we finally got a dollar figure from a government delegation in the region, which put the damages at $100 million.

Stars and Stripes ran an article last month trying to spin the massive damage in a positive light, insisting the US was extremely good about paying for all the stuff they break. The article centered on the Zhari district, where locals complain US troops have been bulldozing homes. But at least they paid, right?

Not really, as Maj. Gen. Terry, the commander of operations in the region, insists that the damage isn’t nearly so high, and insists that at best all the things the US has damaged, which includes ruining farmers fields across the entire province and destroying hundreds of homes was worth $1.4 million at most.

With the military’s budget going into unchartered territory it seems pretty clear that there wasn’t tons left over to pay for all the stuff they broke, or bulldozed, or blew up. Yet with military offensives constantly stalling in the face of popular opposition, the effort to short change the Kandahar residents may well do as much damage to their view of NATO as the occupation is.

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