STRANGE WAR

United Nations forensics experts began sifting through two mass graves in northern Afghanistan Tuesday. One is a deep pit into which perhaps hundreds of Taliban were bulldozed after they suffocated; the other a shallow trench into which hundreds of anti-Taliban were dumped after being shot.

On the same day, amidst all that anonymous slaughter, Canadian troops and U.S. forensic experts returned from the former al-Qaida stronghold at Tora Bora with DNA samples they hope will identify some of those killed by allied bombs late last year. Officials deny they are searching for specific remains, such as the bodies of Osama bin Laden or Mullah Omar.

In southern Afghanistan, the United States during the weekend moved some 1,000 of its best Army troops into positions at the Pakistani border. They join several hundred crack British Marines in preparing for what may be a decisive battle against some of the last significant numbers of al-Qaida and Taliban forces. Meanwhile, the nearby towns of Khost and Gardez, under the control of the anti-Taliban interim government of Hamid Karzai, come under rocket attack by anti-Taliban tribal leader Bacha Khan, who openly brags that the Americans will not challenge his bid for regional power as long as the common enemy remains at large.

On March 1, the U.N. Commission on Refugees estimated that 400,000 Afghans would return home from Pakistan this year as peace gradually returned to their ravaged country. Just eight weeks later, despite the continued fighting, the number exceeds 600,000 and by year’s end the human tide is expected to top 1.2 million. The amount budgeted by the U.N. for these refugees to restart their lives – enough to provide $20 in cash, a blanket, a bucket and a few sacks of wheat for the initial 400,000 estimate – has not increased. In fact, U.N. officials say, so many member nations and organizations that pledged funds have not kept their promises that the actual amount received may only be 60 percent of what was expected, while the number to be helped triples.

It is against this backdrop of mass murder and manhunts, of allies attacking allies and of poverty turning to starvation that Afghanistan is supposed to rebuild itself. In just six weeks, the loya jirga, the traditional national tribal assembly, is to convene, install a new government and chart a course for democracy. It’s been a strange war; the peace will be a miracle.