PANJWAI, Afghanistan  No one disputes that the campaign by NATO and Afghan forces that wrested this southern district from Taliban control last fall caused tremendous damage. The evidence is all around. In one place a whole village was destroyed.

The question now is whether NATO troops can win over local people as they compensate them for damage and build new roads, which they hope will bring greater security and prosperity but which are tearing up still more property. Every day Canadian troops deploy tanks and bulldozers during construction. Fruit trees have been felled, vines uprooted, and fields and barns flattened.

Addressing the complaints is critical to wooing people away from the Taliban for the long term. But as so often in Afghanistan, coalition forces have tripped up on the complexities of Afghan society, angering people by making decisions without consultation and meddling in one of the most intractable issues in Afghanistan: land ownership.

In the neighboring district of Zhare, American troops who cleared the area of Taliban fighters found that the compensation payments went smoothly at first. Troops filled out a form on the spot. The farmer took it to headquarters, where he was compensated relatively quickly, assuaging local anger.