KABUL, Afghanistan, June 13 (UPI) -- Forty minutes north of Kabul, in Paghman, there's a small bridge stretching 10 meters across a quiet stream. The bridge is one of thousands of small projects donor countries have carried out in Afghanistan.

In fact, it was built by Italy not once but twice.

In November, a suicide bomber attacked Italian troops erecting that bridge, killing six Afghan civilians and wounding another nine. One of those killed was a respected elder who demobilized his community from local militias; another hoped to be a schoolteacher like his father; a widow fears she and her five daughters face destitution. Since the Italian troops did not cause the harm, they did nothing to assist the families.

But they did build a new bridge. This is the prevailing logic for aid to Afghanistan.

The Paris Donor Conference this week is pledging $20 billion to Afghanistan, far short of the $50 billion hoped for. But none of that will likely go to civilian war victims suffering deaths, injuries and lost homes. The issue is not even on the agenda in Paris. That's despite President Hamid Karzai's continued outcry at civilian casualties, despite increasingly vocal complaints from the Afghan people and despite the efforts of many non-governmental organizations, mine included, to raise the issue with ambassadors even as they were packing their bags here in Kabul to go to Paris.