Of course, the politically charged exchange between the two 17th century warlords is a mere political posturing that is intended to exploit the primordial sentiments of the people in the region, but central to the posturing is keeping themselves in power. Otherwise, both have neither love nor devotion to the common people. Their concerns lie in preserving the power which they acquired by illegal means.

Meles may try to impress some gullible foreigners with fairy tales about how great a military "strategist" he was in the 1980s, and how he has democratized the Ethiopian society today. But we are the least impressed. Cynical as he is, he gambles at calculated chaos.

In his recent interview with IRIN, he reasserted his willingness to further dismember Ethiopia. He said, "If the Somali people of Ethiopia wish to do so [want to secede],that's fine with me. That's not an issue at all now." His seemingly irresponsible remarks are trial balloons. Of course, the thought of expanding the already lawless Somali land by awarding Ogaden, gives one an eerie feeling. For Meles dismembering Ethiopia has been his life time ambition. Now he wants to make it a planned prophesy - so that he could say "I told you so". After all, he said in 1991, "If Ethiopia disintegrates, so be it. It was not meant to be." How else would he justify the cession of the northern province?

Meles is nothing but an ordinary warlord. An optimist would have hoped that twelve years of on the job training and countless blunders, including the recent war over Badme, would make him "wise". But nothing penetrates. He is incapable of learning. He is not even an inch closer to understanding the political complexity of the country. Rather, the more he stays on the job, the more he divulges his unfitness to run even a small village, let alone an ancient nation like Ethiopia.

The last person to call Badme "some godforsaken village" should have been Meles Zenawi, for which one hundred thousand of promising young citizens perished, thousands of families were displaced, and the country bled financially.

The memory of the senseless death of those one hundred thousand brave young men, who died believing that they were defending their motherland, is still fresh in the minds of millions of Ethiopians. The people have not forgotten how the fallen heroes' corpses were left to rotten in Badame, because no one cared to give them ceremonious burial. It is still a painful memory that the unscrupulous Meles buried the dead only after the United Nations issued its strongest warning regarding the serious health risk the corpses posed to the residents in the surrounding areas.

Meles' political, moral, and intellectual bankruptcy is an open secret. It seems hard to leave millions of Ethiopians to struggle for life or death in the hands of this national traitor. If solutions are not sought, it appears the nation is heading to further disintegration under his command. Such prospect should alarm all responsible citizens who wish to preserve the nation for the next generation. To that end, we have to create a common goal, foremost among those goals should be the removal of Meles Zenawi from power. The country deserves better!