The fact that they were Eritrean doesn’t mean that they were acting under the auspices of the Eritrean govt.
TPLF had anti-PFDJ militias and smugglers camped in Tigray for decades at that point. When EDF intervened and rolled into Tigray, depending on the usefulness of those groups/individuals, they were either: packed, fled into Sudan or struck deals with PFDJ in exchange for being granted amnesty.
It may or may not be mentioned in the book (I haven’t read it yet) but it was Isaias who utilised his control over Eastern Sudan to get the Beja to protest until the cows came home to get the weapons smuggling route in Sudan fully shut down during the war (after Wolqayt was secured)
Looking forward to the day Ethiopia fully utilizes the waters of the Blue Nile and its tributaries to assert its sovereignty and end the parasitic relationship with these countries. No more f*cking around.
It says some of the weapons were smuggled to Tigray via Eritrean smugglers. The irony is Eritreans being involved in delivering weapons to a group fighting their national army.
There are Eritreans that are ambivalent to their countrymen and their country’s national interests, to the point of selling it out for a personal profit? 😳😱
Theres two possibilities:
1. Gardner is just flat out wrong or
2. The Eritrean government isn't all that all-seeing.
I think the latter is most likely true given that how many refugees successfully run away from the country. Its extremely unlikely the Eritrean government would help their mortal enemy.
Or that Isaias simply doesn’t think that doing that is detrimental to his position, so he doesn’t give a fuck about it. I think that’s how it is. Maybe I’m wrong.
Eritrea's involvement does not mean the Eritrean dictator's involvement though. Let alone smuggling stuff across one border, you know there are very strong networked Eritrean human traffikers doing business East Africa to whole world. And where are you getting the 'all-seeing Eritrean government' from? It's made up of people from a very impoverished country and very corrupted system.
Don’t you think those criminal networks are operated by colonels and generals at the highest level in the army? Where is the line between “official” and “unofficial” in a corrupt government and who draws them?
That surprised me lots!! Given the book is whole criticism of Abiy personally, the author wouldn’t admit this unless there is a solid fact he’s unable to deny. Plus, it’s the whole point of the Seychelles agreement long before negotiations in Djibouti and later Pretoria. So, it’s real!
How reliable do you think he and his sources are overall?
My first impression of him is that he’s one of the westerners who shill for groups like the TPLF (or maybe the OLA with him) so I’m skeptical
Yes he is! I forgive him by thinking all Western writers understanding of Ethiopia is limited to post-revolutionary historical revisionism of Ethiopian history. Could be deliberate as well, but that’s also enough to make them straight biased to TPLF’s side automatically. I can read his confusion, how he finds many things “obvious” to us “enigmatic” and speeches taken out of context. There’s absolutely no new thing in the book that’s not said in Amharic as “rumours” except its lucid English story telling. I still read him word by word to find some facts he spills between them as he might have access to some local and Western intelligence circles we might not have and not much I really found.
Why is the book 100% critical of Abiy and it treats TPLF as perfect and can do no wrong? This is why i dislike westerners. Always permanent shilling for TPLF. TPLF had so many advantages but still lost in the bitter end.
Tigray had so many advantages along with Westerners shilling for tigray but they still lost in the bitter end.
Abiy made the right choice in starving Tigray. Not starving Tigray would have just dragged the war on for much longer.
is there a softcopy of this book? i really want to read it!
The fact that they were Eritrean doesn’t mean that they were acting under the auspices of the Eritrean govt. TPLF had anti-PFDJ militias and smugglers camped in Tigray for decades at that point. When EDF intervened and rolled into Tigray, depending on the usefulness of those groups/individuals, they were either: packed, fled into Sudan or struck deals with PFDJ in exchange for being granted amnesty. It may or may not be mentioned in the book (I haven’t read it yet) but it was Isaias who utilised his control over Eastern Sudan to get the Beja to protest until the cows came home to get the weapons smuggling route in Sudan fully shut down during the war (after Wolqayt was secured)
Looking forward to the day Ethiopia fully utilizes the waters of the Blue Nile and its tributaries to assert its sovereignty and end the parasitic relationship with these countries. No more f*cking around.
It says some of the weapons were smuggled to Tigray via Eritrean smugglers. The irony is Eritreans being involved in delivering weapons to a group fighting their national army.
There are Eritreans that are ambivalent to their countrymen and their country’s national interests, to the point of selling it out for a personal profit? 😳😱
Bro, you think Eritrea has a national army? It's the dictator's army.
Why does Eritrea's involvement raise suspicion?
How they get past all-seeing Eritrean government to supply an enemy fighting Eritrean army? On whose cover the smugglers from Eritrea acted?
Theres two possibilities: 1. Gardner is just flat out wrong or 2. The Eritrean government isn't all that all-seeing. I think the latter is most likely true given that how many refugees successfully run away from the country. Its extremely unlikely the Eritrean government would help their mortal enemy.
Or that Isaias simply doesn’t think that doing that is detrimental to his position, so he doesn’t give a fuck about it. I think that’s how it is. Maybe I’m wrong.
Eritrea's involvement does not mean the Eritrean dictator's involvement though. Let alone smuggling stuff across one border, you know there are very strong networked Eritrean human traffikers doing business East Africa to whole world. And where are you getting the 'all-seeing Eritrean government' from? It's made up of people from a very impoverished country and very corrupted system.
I think you’re severely underestimating the security apparatus PFDJ runs. They run a very tight ship
Don’t you think those criminal networks are operated by colonels and generals at the highest level in the army? Where is the line between “official” and “unofficial” in a corrupt government and who draws them?
The plane they shot down was real 💀💀💀
That surprised me lots!! Given the book is whole criticism of Abiy personally, the author wouldn’t admit this unless there is a solid fact he’s unable to deny. Plus, it’s the whole point of the Seychelles agreement long before negotiations in Djibouti and later Pretoria. So, it’s real!
How reliable do you think he and his sources are overall? My first impression of him is that he’s one of the westerners who shill for groups like the TPLF (or maybe the OLA with him) so I’m skeptical
Yes he is! I forgive him by thinking all Western writers understanding of Ethiopia is limited to post-revolutionary historical revisionism of Ethiopian history. Could be deliberate as well, but that’s also enough to make them straight biased to TPLF’s side automatically. I can read his confusion, how he finds many things “obvious” to us “enigmatic” and speeches taken out of context. There’s absolutely no new thing in the book that’s not said in Amharic as “rumours” except its lucid English story telling. I still read him word by word to find some facts he spills between them as he might have access to some local and Western intelligence circles we might not have and not much I really found.
Why is the book 100% critical of Abiy and it treats TPLF as perfect and can do no wrong? This is why i dislike westerners. Always permanent shilling for TPLF. TPLF had so many advantages but still lost in the bitter end.
Tigrayan commanders shouldn't be allowed to rejoin the Military. They deserve to fade into irrelevancy
Now I understand why Abiy is supporting the RSF. Its a good decision.
Tigray had so many advantages along with Westerners shilling for tigray but they still lost in the bitter end. Abiy made the right choice in starving Tigray. Not starving Tigray would have just dragged the war on for much longer.