As said over and over, the claim Eritrea has against Ethiopia is more than a border. Many can give different reasons for the conflict. To me, the true main reason beside identity crises is the Eritrean hate obsession against Ethiopia. Many of us know this fact throughout our life time. The recent Eritrean officials statement also tends to prove this hate agenda rather than border conflict.

On his recent televised interview, Eritrean President was talking about his military lose at Badame region. The President claimed that Ethiopians should not deserve to celebrate victory since they gained the area with thousands of human loses. Well, the whole Ethiopian/Eritrean issue is supposed to be a border issue. That was supposed to be the reason for each spending a million dollar a day and also putting hundreds of thousands of lives at risk. If that is the case, then both countries should be willing to pay a heavy price to control those disputed areas. Ethiopia won the war and re-claims Badame. I think that should give us a clear reason to celebrate our victory despite the price we pay.

Victory should not be measured by the number of soldiers each country killed. That is only a measure of hate. I heard the Eritrean officials times after times talking and celebrating about the dead Ethiopian soldiers at Badame, instead of Badame itself. Even for the last few days, they are talking about nothing but the number Ethiopian soldiers they killed. They even ran out their way and managed somehow to convince reporters to show the dead bodies of Ethiopian soldiers. BBC and Router have been busy writing pictorial description of the supposed dead Ethiopians. Ethiopia must understand the real Eritrean agenda is to destroy and be destroyed, and should deal with it accordingly.

We should realize Eritreans are well-dug and infesting the front line with mines. The Ethiopian soldier whose main interest to reclaim his land is in much greater disadvantage. The Eritreans indirectly admitted that they are not too interested on piece of land but to inflict as much causality as possible and retreat. We must adapt other tactics rather than trying to fight directly with the enemy to his advantage. I am confident our military experts and intellectuals have many strategies to use. We should not expect quick victory with a very heavy human loses. We should plan for the long and bitter war.