Dear Netters:

Despite the Eritrean public relations spin on the fighting, things are not as rosy as Eritrea wants people to believe. The fact is that Eritrea is hanging on for dear life and has not been able to prevent Ethiopian forces from smashing their way through to the Eritrean defense lines.

Don't be impressed by Eritrea's claims of knocking out 9 tanks. Even if true, such losses are expected when attacking fortified positions. The Eritreans are dug in and have prepared their positions for 9 months now. The impressive thing is that the Ethiopian troops have taken the battle into the Eritrean trenches, and it is only at great cost that Eritrea is able to hang on.

A decisive breakthrough at the Badime front is going to change the entire character of this war. Should Ethiopian forces break through here, the whole of Eritrea's Gash-Setit region will be in peril.

It is impressive that Ethiopia is able to accomplish this despite the lack of sufficient troops to fully exploit their initial breakthroughs. A couple of mechanized brigades following on the heels of the initial attack would have permanently finished off the battle yesterday.

As for the POWs captured, it should be remembered that the ICRC has registered 163 Eritrean POWs that were captured during the failed Eritrean offensives of June 9-11, 1998.

There are inevitable setbacks in war and the road ahead is difficult. However, there is one overriding factor that is going to decide this war - right is on the side of Ethiopia.

This is a dead-end war for Eritrea. The Eritrean people will come to bitterly regret the heady fever of aggressive, militaristic nationalism that is currently sweeping their country.

- Dagmawi