President Isaias in his press conference in Washington, D.C. called the conflict "a senseless war." He is right and it is pointless too. Even in the most decisive victory, at the end, the warring parties have to sit down and sign an agreement. Since the beginning of this senseless conflict, the people of Eritrea wished and prayed hard for a peaceful solution. Many of us even said privately or publicly that Eritrea missed golden opportunities by not signing OAU's initial peace proposal. Eritrea's reluctance to sign the OAU initial peace proposal, gave a temporary moral high ground to the Woyane regime. In retrospective, had Eritrea accepted the proposal, the Woyane's true nature would have been exposed long time ago. Yet, for Eritrea this period was very precious, it learnt how to maneuver in the jungle of diplomatic arena. It surely was a costly lesson, but not the kind of lesson Ethiopia wanted to teach Eritrea. Now Eritrea is on higher moral ground while Ethiopia is faltering diplomatically.

The Woyane government wishes now had Eritrea accepted the peace plan in 1998, they would have been spared from giving account to their Badme's empty victory, the nightmarish defeat at Tserona and other unpublicized battles. The Woyane promised its people more than it can deliver. The current state of affairs of the Woyane is not about peaceful solution to the conflict but how to stay in power. Sooner or later the truth will come out, Woyane's wish is later than sooner, even if they would be able to delay it by a single day. Therefore, the clever schemes Addis Ababa regime keeps producing are delaying tactics to distract the international community. I have termed these survival schemes, the magic hat and the Wildcard methods.

1. The Magic Hat method is meant to buy time and gain sympathy by the international community while convincing the Ethiopian public that they are on the top of things. At the beginning of the conflict, the Woyane was able to create euphoria in rallying its people by portraying "Eritrea as the aggressor and a menace to the region." Now the regime lives in a state of nightmare. It wishes that if all the events of the past 17 months were only bad dreams. The Woyane keeps pulling tricks from its magic hat of the Ethio-circus, to cover up its state of paranoia. Now of the tricks are to enlist the damages invading Eritrea caused on a peace loving and democratic Ethiopia. By looking at these pseudo facts, the international community may be coerced to pressure Eritrea, and alter the peace deal to suit Ethiopia. However, the primary purpose of using their magic hat is more for domestic consumption than for international affairs. The following are some of the tricks being produced out of the Woyane's magic hat: Suing Eritrea for $133 million for the Ethiopian goods confiscated in the ports of Eritrea. How about counter suing Ethiopia for the damages done by Derg to the port of Massawa, and by the Woyane for the repeated bombardment of Assab and then Massawa? Ethiopia assesses the damage done by Eritrea to Badme and its environs to exceed $200 million. Eritrea should pay war compensation for all the damages it caused by its war of aggression. How about asking Ethiopia to pay war compensation for every human life lost, for all the properties plundered and destroyed, for each minute lost for development, for every person displaced for every person maimed during its occupation of Eritrea 1961-1991? Don't forget the interest! Deported Eritreans left behind bank and mortgage debts, a big burden to Ethiopia. According to Woyane's rationale, these people were parasites to Ethiopia than assets. A clever accusation of defenseless and deported citizens. How about the property left behind by the "uprooted Eritreans" close to $1 billion? Doesn't this rationale look like the one of Hitler against the Jews? Isn't this similar to what the White-supremacists indictment against the Jews here in USA today?

   In Ethiopia, words of propaganda have more effect than in Eritrea. Eritreans know how to read between the line, even if it comes from our own government. The Amhara-Tigray society is rhetoric and oral culture known for its double meaning words "semnna worq qinie- Gold and wax." The Amahra-Tigray political elites are expected to excel in such rhetorical eloquence, as a means of persuasion and manipulation. It is in this context, that we need to understand the Woyane's lack of logic and inconsistency in their projection of the conflict with Eritrea. No matter how frustrating it may be to Eritreans and the international community, they are well within the boundary of their culture. As far as the Woayne keep pulling out "double meaning words" from their magic hat, their followers will be enamored by their eloquent and sousing words. Therefore, the bottom line is that, all Woyane's contradicting misinformation has two purposes: To frustrate Eritrea and then to make their people believe that they have the upper hand. However, their narcissistic behavior is being emboldened by the feedback they get both from friends and foes. The aim of former was and still is to assert and validate it's new found power while the plan of the latter was to seize power from the former. For the latter group, the border conflict with Eritrea was a God sent opportunity to regain its throne set aside by God since the earliest times of human history, a myth that never goes out of fashion. But as the saying in Tigriyna, "klte goraHats HameKusti sinqom- or in Amharic ebab lebab yiteyayalu bekab- in short - two smarts trying to out smart each other."

2. The Wild Card method is an option the Woyane might have to use as a last resort for survival. It knows full well that "the magic hat" is not going to keep it in power for too long, though it may buy some time. Therefore, the wild card is a gamble when there will be no other way out, either for face saving or to stay physically alive. I can even add the Russian Roulette analogy in addition of the wildcard game. The Addis Ababa regime, no matter how much war preparation it has to do, at the end of the day there is only 50/50 chance to come out victorious, a real wild card. Even if Woyane comes out victorious for the sake face saving, it still has to give account to the people of Ethiopia for the previous losses one day. The regime has to come with some explanation, especially when there were a number of opportunities for a peaceful settlement right from the beginning. Then what is the rationale behind Woyane's threat of playing a wildcard game? The chance to win is as good as the one of Eritrea any way. I believe the mission in this case is to inflict as much damage as possible on Eritrea, "the lesson it will never forget." A resolute made in the international arena. This is what I consider the scary and dangerous gamble the Woyane has in mind on Eritrea. I strongly believe that than one who fights for a purpose the one who fights for survival could be far more dangerous. The fight of the last resort for Woyane is then a fight for life, do it or die, a real wild card gamble.

   Eritrea is the international face of Ethiopia's internal political power struggle. Therefore, unholy alliance was struck among the rival parties. A common enemy, Eritrea has both historical and political reasons to be a rallying point. The historical reason the majority political elite of Ethiopia, Eritrea is a mirror that show them their blemishes. They may lie left and right pretending the invincible and most dignified nation, but they cannot lie to Eritrea who whipped them butt naked for the last 50 years. Politically, Eritrea becomes a rallying point for Ethiopia, a society ethnically fragmented and that keep losing a national cohesion by the hour. Therefore, first the people and then government of Eritrea are presented as demons. For convenience sake, the Woyane projected the demon, personified in its president, Isaias Afeworki, an Eritrean hero, the Ethiopians love to hate. Therefore, according to the Ethiopia power holders and aspirants, the government of Isaias has to be dealt with. This is a clear example of Woyane's fluid stand about conflict was more to stay in power than a border issue.

   Finally, I would like to conclude with the following anecdote: Two mental patients plotted to escape from a mental hospital through the keyhole of the door they were locked in. They banged and knocked their head all night long to squeeze out through the keyhole. After both got exhausted, one of them tried to understand why their brilliant escape plan could not succeed, and looked through the keyhole and saw the key was in the keyhole from outside. Then he told his friend, we could not go through the keyhole because the key is in it from outside." I hope that at the end of the day reality will hit home in Ethiopia for the sake of the region and the innocent Ethiopians who keep being swept by the hurricane of power struggle.