Good guys vs. bad guys in Afghanistan

LA Times:

...

With the Taliban resurgent in the south, the Marines were deployed specifically to battle entrenched militants. Within a month, they routed the Taliban fighters and disrupted infiltration routes.

Now they are trying to win over Afghan civilians who are trickling back to their damaged homes.

...

Sher Zaman, a wizened man in a floppy gray turban, stared at his yellow slip in bewilderment. But he brightened when Sgt. James Blake, told him through an interpreter that he would receive $3,200 for his ruined roof and mattresses burned during the Marine assault.

The sergeant asked Zaman to report on any Taliban in his area. The old man shook his fist.

"You guys are good guys trying to help the people [mess] up the bad guys," the old man said. "If I see the bad guys, I'll catch them myself. I'm old, but I can catch them."

Several other people also provided information, warning the Marines that insurgents wearing explosives-packed vests or dressed in women's burkas planned suicide attacks.

"Don't leave us alone," said one applicant, Habib Rahman, a farmer with a crimson-dyed beard. "If you leave, the bad guys will come right back."

Yar Mohammed, 80, who hobbled into the payment hut using a cane, described a damaged wall, gate, doors and steel roof beams. Told that he would be given a yellow slip good for $2,375, Mohammed shook his head and said, "This is not enough."

Blake, a mortarman, explained that the payments for repairs were based on estimates from local contractors fed into an Excel program.

"OK," Mohammed said, shrugging. "You decide."

He happily provided his fingerprints and posed for a registration photo.

...

There is much more. The yellow slips of paper are basically IOUs for when the money is sent to the Marines to pay for the damage to buildings in the area. The Marines are buying good will with the repairs. How long it will stay bought is another question.