Rule Ethiopia or Perish: The Tplf motto!! Nothing could have been done to avert the war: Prof Mesay K.
Posted: 27 Oct 2021, 16:44
Professor Messay Kebede
Rather than conceding defeat or withdrawing to defensive lines inside Tigray, it seems that the TPLF, despite numerous setbacks, has decided to stick to its offensive strategy and fight the war to the last man, driven as it is by the motto: rule Ethiopia or perish. Not only does it pour thousands of ill-prepared troops of all ages, including children, into the war fronts, but it is also doing everything to anger, unite, and mobilize against it the Amhara and Afar peoples. Just as Germany under the Nazi regime did not surrender until it was left in complete ruins and fully occupied, so too the TPLF is assigning Tigreans one goal only: total victory that puts the TPLF back to power, even if it requires the maximum human and material sacrifices. Whatever be the final outcome of this war, one thing is sure: it will cause untold destruction and a deep animosity between the peoples of northern Ethiopia that would be difficult to heal.
The resolution to prevail at all costs tells me to what extent the war was inevitable. It had nothing to do with the need to rectify legitimate grievances or obtain concessions from the federal government. Instead, it is inscribed in the anomaly of a region that could only see itself as a rival, given the fact that it is armed to the teeth, almost to the point of surpassing the military capability of the federal state. Because the real reason for the war is the incompatibility of a state within a state, nothing could be done to avert it. It had to come to a military showdown.
In many ways, this war picks up where the Derg left off. Though Ethiopia was then under a similar threat of disintegration, fighting stopped because the Derg was demoralized by successive defeats, but also because the Ethiopian people believed that anything is better than the rule of the Derg. What should have happened then is finally catching up, namely, the simple but hard choice: either the eradication of the TPLF or the demise of Ethiopia.
Rather than conceding defeat or withdrawing to defensive lines inside Tigray, it seems that the TPLF, despite numerous setbacks, has decided to stick to its offensive strategy and fight the war to the last man, driven as it is by the motto: rule Ethiopia or perish. Not only does it pour thousands of ill-prepared troops of all ages, including children, into the war fronts, but it is also doing everything to anger, unite, and mobilize against it the Amhara and Afar peoples. Just as Germany under the Nazi regime did not surrender until it was left in complete ruins and fully occupied, so too the TPLF is assigning Tigreans one goal only: total victory that puts the TPLF back to power, even if it requires the maximum human and material sacrifices. Whatever be the final outcome of this war, one thing is sure: it will cause untold destruction and a deep animosity between the peoples of northern Ethiopia that would be difficult to heal.
The resolution to prevail at all costs tells me to what extent the war was inevitable. It had nothing to do with the need to rectify legitimate grievances or obtain concessions from the federal government. Instead, it is inscribed in the anomaly of a region that could only see itself as a rival, given the fact that it is armed to the teeth, almost to the point of surpassing the military capability of the federal state. Because the real reason for the war is the incompatibility of a state within a state, nothing could be done to avert it. It had to come to a military showdown.
In many ways, this war picks up where the Derg left off. Though Ethiopia was then under a similar threat of disintegration, fighting stopped because the Derg was demoralized by successive defeats, but also because the Ethiopian people believed that anything is better than the rule of the Derg. What should have happened then is finally catching up, namely, the simple but hard choice: either the eradication of the TPLF or the demise of Ethiopia.
We told ya so..it ain't 1991 this time around. You wouldn't listen!!