Donors’ dilemma: How to help hungry Afghans ... not the Taliban

There is no shortage of urgent warnings, led by the United Nations, about the looming threats this winter to the Afghan people: food insecurity for more than half the population, millions of children under 5 at risk of acute malnutrition. “A countdown to catastrophe,” in the words of David Beasley, head of the U.N. World Food Program.

Yet politicians are finding it unpalatable to resume massive Western aid to a country ruled again by the Taliban, which have been on official U.S. and European terrorist lists for years. So far,...