Thursday, the United Nations calculated the cost of rebuilding Iraq after war would be $30 billion in the first three years alone. This large amount of assistance includes costs like feeding the population (60 percent of whom are dependent on government-distributed food rations), repairing physical damage to the country and governmental restructuring.

The estimated cost of building Iraq is relatively large than the anticipated cost of rebuilding Afghanistan, which is expected to reach $6.5 billion for the first 30 months. However, Afghanistan is much less urbanized than Iraq, and most of the populace were self-sufficient because of farming and herding.

The high price of reconstruction in Iraq now has many worried that the efforts to democratize and economically rebuild Afghanistan will become a lesser priority, weaking the government of Hamid Karzai. However, the White House envoy to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, hoped to dissapate those fears, and told a large audience including senior officials from Kabul that “Our (The United States) commitment to the future of Afghanistan is unshakable.”

It is important the United States fulfills that statement and gives Afghanistan some priority when thinking about war with Iraq. If the United States is going to try to right the wrongs of war by promising reconstruction and promoting new and improved government, they must not make any exception and can certainly not focus on one country’s projects more at the expense of another country.

There is a lot of worry about public opposition of U.S. involvement in rebuilding. The citizens of a destroyed country are generally embittered against the enemy who defeated them, and having the same enemy help them start anew is comparable to a bully helping clean up the kid he just beat up. While wanting the help, the defeated are indignant and resentful because of their pride. Couple the anger of defeat with the feelings many Iraqis and Afghanis harbor for the United States, and this intensifies the problem even more.

But in the end, the decision of reconstruction is a lose-lose situation. If the United States aids in helping defeated opponents, the United States will have to spend money, and many will be thankless for the effort, feeling a loss of pride.

But this is far worse than the alternative: If the United States goes to war, destroys a country and leaves it to its own methods in trying to rebuild, even more innocent people will die than necessary.

If the United States wishes to continue destroying the world, it must be able to equally and justly rebuild it.