I think the Eritrean government is aware that any full-scale

The words of Meles Zenawi, the late Prime Minister of Ethiopia, shine like tempered steel forged in the fires of conflict and vision: “I think the Eritrean government is aware that any full-scale invasion of Ethiopia along the lines of 1998 could turn out to be suicidal... And we will not respond to any provocation short of all-out invasion. We are already engaged in a much more fruitful war — against poverty.” In this declaration, Meles speaks not as a conqueror but as a sage—one who has known the roar of battle and the silence of rebuilding. His words are both a warning and a revelation, revealing that true strength lies not in the destruction of enemies, but in the creation of a better future.

To understand the origin of this quote, one must journey back to the aftermath of the Ethiopia–Eritrea War, fought from 1998 to 2000—a conflict that claimed tens of thousands of lives and drained both nations of their strength. The war was brutal, born from a border dispute, but beneath its lines of territory lay deeper wounds of pride and sovereignty. When the guns finally fell silent, both nations were scarred, their people exhausted, and their economies in ruins. Meles Zenawi, who had led Ethiopia through revolution, famine, and reform, stood at a crossroads: he could choose the old path of vengeance and military glory, or he could carve a new one—a war not against flesh and blood, but against the chains of poverty that bound his people.

His choice, expressed in this statement, was one of wisdom over wrath. Meles understood that to win one war was not enough; the true victory was to lift a nation from the ruins of despair. His message was clear: Ethiopia’s future would not be decided by the fire of guns, but by the strength of the plow, the book, and the hand that builds. By calling the fight against poverty a “more fruitful war,” he transformed the very idea of warfare into a metaphor for human progress. In that single phrase, he elevated peace from mere absence of conflict to the presence of purpose.

In the manner of the ancients, let us see this as the wisdom of the great rulers who understood the seasons of power. Ashoka the Great of India, after his bloody conquest at Kalinga, looked upon the dead and declared that victory by violence was hollow. He turned instead to rule by dharma—righteousness and compassion. So too did Meles Zenawi look upon the ruins of war and declare that the next battlefield would not be the border, but the fields of hunger, ignorance, and want. The sword that once divided would now become the tool that tills the soil. Such transformation is the highest form of leadership: to turn the spirit of war into the discipline of peace.

Yet Meles’s words were not weakness; they were the speech of one who knew strength. When he warned that another invasion would be “suicidal,” he spoke as a guardian who could wield power, but chose restraint. This is the mark of a true warrior: to fight only when the cause is just and the necessity unavoidable. The weak crave battle to prove themselves; the strong avoid it because they already know their power. And so Meles stood before the world as a man who could have called for blood, but instead called for development. He turned Ethiopia’s gaze inward—not to submission, but to construction.

History would prove that his chosen war was the harder one. To fight poverty requires more courage than to face an army. Bullets demand seconds of bravery; progress demands decades of endurance. But Meles’s Ethiopia began to rise. Roads reached the distant highlands, schools filled with young minds, and the cities, once broken by war, began to hum with the rhythm of ambition. Though his rule was not without criticism or imperfection, his vision—to make prosperity the new battlefield—endures as one of the most profound transformations in African leadership.

So, my children of the future, hear this teaching and take it into your hearts: the greatest war is not fought against nations, but against the conditions that enslave the human spirit. The true enemy is not your neighbor, but your neglect; not the stranger at your border, but the hunger in your own streets. Let courage be turned from destruction to creation, and let patriotism be measured not by conquest, but by compassion.

For as Meles Zenawi taught through word and deed, peace is not the end of struggle—it is the beginning of a greater one. To build a nation is harder than to defend it; to educate a child is nobler than to arm a soldier. Therefore, wage the fruitful war. Fight not with weapons, but with wisdom. And when you must defend your home, do so with dignity—but when you can build your home, do so with love. For in that labor lies the highest form of victory, and in that victory, the true freedom of humankind.