Even those who try hard have trouble sorting out the Ethiopia- Eritrea war. Why would erstwhile allies, whose prime ministers fought together to oust Ethiopian dictator Mengistu Haile-Mariam, suddenly come to blows over a rocky border area, out which they had previously agreed to disagree?

Each side says that the war (in recess since mid-June) is insane, that negotiations are welcome, that its territory was invaded and that its citizens living in the other nation have been mistreated. Propaganda machines are going full blast. It's hard to tell the good guys from the bad.

John Rude, a free-lance journalist who travels to the region, has undisguised admiration for the Eritreans as industrious, gutsy people for whom theft, corruption and even begging are outside the cultural norms. They fought for freedom for decades, became

independent of Ethiopia through a 1993 referendum and don't like being pushed around. Rude has an explanation for how the current fight began -- and its underlying cause.

A German organization gave Ethiopians a grant to produce a map to be used in schools. Instead of the straight lines from Italian colonial days (enshrined by Michelin), the border on this map zagged into traditional Eritrean territory. In December 1997, the map was reproduced on Ethiopian bank notes. The Eritreans wondered what was up.

Rude says they found encroachment and ``random misplacement'' of government offices of the Ethiopian province of Tigre. On May 6, border patrols clashed in Badame, which seemed to have become part of Tigre.

Who shot first may be irrelevant; Rude thinks the dispute is a diversion from landlocked Ethiopia's push for a Red Sea port. Itlost both Massawa and Assab with Eritrean independence and doesn't expect to get either back through negotiations. As evidence of Ethiopia's drive to right this ``wrong,'' Rude says it massed troops on the road to Assab, far from the original fighting. And Ethiopia's quick declaration of war and roundup of

Eritrean residents suggests premeditation, not reaction.

He reckons that the border dispute could easily be solved: Both sides withdraw from disputed areas; the United Nations patrols, new maps are made, subject to arbitration; and a treaty is signed. While the conflict goes on, two of the world's poorest nations get poorer. But don't call it a ``senseless'' tragedy: This war is about something.