Selam Dehai,

As we anxiously await for peace to come to our little corner of the world, we should never lose focus of TPLF's whole intention throughout this conflict. Its aim was one and only one, from day one of the conflict: to annihilate Eritrea. Believing that the world may come to its senses and realize what is going on, we marched for peace, we prayed for peace. We begged for peace in July 1998, we pleaded for peace in March 1999 and in Feb. 2000. We are still begging for peace, fully prepared to fight it out. Our intention was to help stop the senseless war. I hope this is the end of it and Ethiopia will withdraw from Eritrean territories peacefully; I hope our mutual borders will be demarcated based on agreed upon treaties/laws. I also hope that all current and future leaders of Eritrea will have the wisdom to look westwards, northwards, eastwards.

For the peace (hopefully) and for the defense of our people and land, we should all solemnly thank the brave Eritrean Defense Forces. A force composed of Eritreans from all walks of life, a true pride of the nation. It is this force that has crushed MaLeLiT's dream of conquering Eritrea and installing a puppet regime. The puppet regime already has MaLeLiT-blessed constitution and designs, with ethnic enclaves, ala MaLeLeT's Ethiopia. Weyane's design was simply to kill all of our brothers and sisters in the defense forces and to freely rape the honor and dignity of our people. It is this force--a military force composed of civil servants, students, professionals, farmers, laborers...--that came between the Weyane and the Eritrean people and forced Wey-ane's truck of invasion to hit a hard rock and crush; a force that made sure that the invading train run out of steam.

The past seven days ushered in so many emotional ups and downs on us mere mortals and exposed the evil designs of the Tigray shiftas. What a reversal of fortunes in a week! The storm is almost all gone, let's hope and pray and work for bright sunny days ahead of us.

Remember that the invasion simply run out of steam. How else can one explain the following rhetoric from the TPLF? Or, proof positive that Ethiopia simply run out of steam!

[my attempt at summarizing the last seven days]

• day 1 : our aim is solely to capture our lost territory,
  Barentu nayna Koyna? Amne-aregawi kfetwena!

• day 2: our aim is to annihilate the Eritean army
  serawit Eritra yelon? kidu lesmerakum neSanet beAl akbru!

• day 3: Ethiopia will soon have its own port
  abtuy qayH baHri m`tawna'u! wey maryam aKsum: aleKi! aleKi!

• day 4: the rogue Eritrean government has got to go
  abey'ni`o bSay kaHday nay Eritra parlama? tedalo belo! asmera m`tawna`u!

• day 5: we are withdrawing from western Eritrea
  aTfi`nayom'do keybelkumuni? Selemti krstos di`atom?

• day 6: ooops, the war is over
  letom Amharan letom galan gedifkum: kidunay nferTT!

• day 7: way-wayo, we need guarantees
  way-wayo! abedan`a `ni`a Gayle Smith? Tony Lake Sew`Ulna!
  Susan Rice dma netu Hade "ton" asbuNo** Hzki labzuy abli belwata::

**A friend reminded me over the weekend that there was a prediction that Susan Rice's "ton of bricks" would simply be a "ton of sponges"..