The Weyanes have failed to incur any meaningful damage on the Eritrean Defense Forces. That was their plan A. They are now resurecting their plan B, "If You Can't Win, Lie About It." As we have seen many times, they are very good at manufacturing victories. Remember the eight division they destroyed at the beginning of the current offensive? But as independent reporters attested, they could not show any evidence of that. You have to be hopelessly naive to think that it is because they are squeamish about showing dead Eritreans that they haven't done so. Today, they have issued a victory report that has their distinctive hallmark of lies and grandiose words. The document rambles incoherently about heroic deeds. But the grandiose words only belies the horrendous losses suffered by the Ethiopian defense forces as a result of the cruel and callous human wave tactics of the Weyanes. The following is part of the report:

" During these engagements, 14 out of the 24 enemy divisions were put out of action following heavy attacks by our defense army. With the exception of the two divisions at the Bure front, the remaining eight divisions were also heavily damaged.

While tens of thousands of enemy forces were killed in these engagements, yet other tens of thousands of enemy soldiers have also been captured by our heroic defense army.

In addition to these heavy human losses, the enemy also incurred considerable material losses. A great number of enemy tanks, heavy artillery and vehicles, thousands of machine guns and rocket launchers as well as tens of thousands of light guns and countless shells and enemy arms ware have been captured by our heroic defense forces. Moreover, huge quantities of enemy properties have also been destroyed by attacks from our heroic army. "

The above should be enough to convince anyone that the Weyanes have failed miserably. Take note that they are claiming to have captured tens of thousands of Eritrean soldiers. I think it is safe to assume that by "enemy soldiers" they mean Eritrean soldiers. What would the cheap liars say if Eritrea were to demand that the Red Cross be allowed to visit these prisoners of war?

Just a week ago, their objective was to destroy the Eritrean defense forces. Something must have happened in the last week for them to retreat from that. And I don't think it is the mild request by the US for them to stop fighting. That came after they started to withdraw their forces. We now know that at the fighting around Senafe over the past week-end, it was the elite Tigrayan forces that were decimated. That must have knocked some hard sense on the Weyanes. They could afford to lose tens of thousands of Oromo and AmHara conscripts; but when it comes to Tigrayans, that spells disaster. Let's not be fooled. The only reason they have accepted to withdraw from Eritrea must be because their forces are disintegrating. Their plan was to take Asmara in two weeks. We will see if they can retreat as smoothly and as skillfully as the Eritrean defense forces have been doing. But the international community may yet again be trying to save the Weyanes. I have this persistent suspicion that the US is now trying to forestall a humiliating collapse of the Weyane forces that are deep inside Eritrea.

For a true picture of why the Weyanes are withdrawing, read the excellent "National Post" article, "A war 'over nothing'", by Patrick Graham. As a result of the large number of displaced Eritreans, Patrick Graham says,

"Now, Eritrea runs less risk of being conquered by Ethiopia than it does becoming another Ethiopia."

Eritrea becoming another Ethiopia would indeed be a disaster. We Eritros will just have to make sure that that never transpires.

warsay