Anyone disagreeing w/ Bruton is being dishonest. The West/the AU/Ethiopia threw everything they had, and more, at Eritrea long ago. Isaias responded by giving them an imperturbable, 20+ year poker face, while he quietly rebuilt his forces and used the threat of foreign aggression https://twitter.com/BronwynBruton/status/1385583923460202496

to consolidate his rule. Meanwhile, he gambled (correctly) on the fact that ethnic tumult in Ethiopia would destabilize the old alliance/security architecture which facilitated his diplomatic + economic isolation. So now, what we have is a situation where punitive sanctions have

not only been maxed out (meaning, no one really has any leverage on Eritrea anymore), but they have also failed to facilitate a regime change. Not only that, they have incentivized Eritrea - not just Isaias, this time - to burn the entire region down, to break out of isolation.

And as of today, 4/23/21, the Ethiopian-Sudanese alliance is finished, the Ethiopian stranglehold on Somalia has slackened to be point of release, and Eritrean forces are rampaging against an old, neighboring enemy with impunity.

The only realistic way to change Eritrea's behavior now (since, again, sanctions have been maxed out), short of a military invasion by the West (which is frankly impossible), is to incentivize them. But no one really wants to hear that, so here we are.