Wars don't come much more stupid or obscene than the current conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea. But for all the apparent senselessness of the conflagration between these two neighbours on the Horn of Africa, its significance is enormous.
It isn't just that this is the first war between sovereign states since the end of the Gulf War. For most of this decade, Eritrea and Ethiopia have been oases of stability in one of the world's most troubled regions.
Since 1991, Ethiopia has achieved a near-miracle in managing to make itself self-sufficient in food, only years after enduring a horrific famine. From a low base, the economy was growing by up to 10 per cent a year. The potential for tourism and mining was only beginning to be explored.
The much smaller Eritrea this year celebrates five years of statehood, achieved after a 30-year struggle for independence. Its rulers have developed a new model for Africa, by shunning the usual enticements of Western development aid and opting to go it alone.
It is too early yet to pronounce on the results of this policy, but Eritrea's example was already providing an inspiration for other African states. The war leaves US policy in Africa in tatters. Both Eritrea and Ethiopia are largely Christian countries which Washington saw as the linchpins of its opposition to the Islamic fundamentalist government in neighbouring Sudan. In addition, the former Marxists ruling both countries happily bought into US free market principles.
The ostensible reason for the conflict is absurd. There is a lot more at stake than a few dusty square miles of scrub on the border between the two countries, a border which was never properly delineated running through land of little value.
The conflict shows once again that it is often harder to wage peace than to wage war. Eritrean guerillas played a vital part in helping rebels from the northern Ethiopian province of Tigre overthrow the genocidal Mengistu regime in 1991. In return, their homeland was granted independence.
However, Ethiopia has never really reconciled itself to the loss of its Red Sea coastline. It was annoyed when Eritrea expelled Ethiopians from its territory, and angered when it established its own currency. For their part, the Eritreans are bitter that Ethiopia insists on using hard currency in transactions when it has almost none.
Ethiopia has a population of 60 million; Eritrea only 3 million. But Eritrea makes up for its lack of size and population with a doggedness forged in three decades of guerilla combat against seemingly impossible odds. Some of its fighters spent years living in underground tunnels during the fiercest phase of the struggle against Mengistu.
Both countries have an annual gross domestic product of less than £500 a head. Yet both governments have treated the world this week to the obscenity of multi-million pound attacks by fighter pilots on rival targets. Africa's capacity for creating misery remains as great as ever.
Rosalind Russell reports from Adigrat in Ethiopia: Heavy fighting erupted around the Ethiopian-Eritrean border town of Zalambessa yesterday as President Isayas Afewerki of Eritrea said there was no end in sight to the conflict.
Residents of Adigrat, some 25 km from the border and the last sizeable Ethiopian town before the frontier, were woken at 5 a.m. by the sound of mortar and tank fire.
Officials said villages in between were being pounded by the Eritreans, who were attacking with an "incredible array of heavy weapons". They said Ethiopian forces were returning fire.
The latest flare-up follows a call by Eritrea on Monday for direct talks. The conflict also poses a pressing diplomatic test for the Organisation of African Unity, whose annual summit started on Monday in Burkina Faso.
President Bill Clinton has telephoned both President Negaso Gidada of Ethiopia and Afewerki of Eritrea and urged both to "deescalate the tension", the US national security adviser, Mr Sandy Berger, said.