Siad Barre's great patriotic war

[Khaem]

 

[Aegon]

1978 ?

 

[Khaem]

1978 ?

78 was when he ordered the generals to withdraw but yeah it's ogaden

 

[Farsi]

@Khaem In the second picture, there's a guy holding a sign in Arabic that says, 'Our cause and the cause of the people of Eritrea are one: it's the liberation of our land from the Abyssinian monster. Moments like these really make you miss Siad.' Where did you find this?

 

[berberaboy66]

Why didn’t he just go for Djibouti first? Or even Socotra? This is why I never want army generals in charge of a country, they’re too emotional

 

[Xassan]

Why didn’t he just go for Djibouti first? Or even Socotra? This is why I never want army generals in charge of a country, they’re too emotional

Djibouti got independence 1977. French had interests in Djibouti and probably would have stepped in to stop Somalia. Socotra was controlled by Yemen and has stuff that somalia already has. What do we need from there besides dates and goat meat? It would have been a liability for Somalia since it would inevitably have a rebellious population and constant Yemeni attacks, + the cost of funding basic government over the island

 

[Jaale Ugaas]

Why didn’t he just go for Djibouti first? Or even Socotra? This is why I never want army generals in charge of a country, they’re too emotional

Djibouti was under French rule so that's off limits.

Kenya (NFD) had a security pact with Ethiopia and the Brits so that's a no go zone.

That leaves the Ogaden under a weakened and internally dysfunctional Ethiopian regime newly established. It looked like a prime opportunity not an emotional decision

 

[Idilinaa]

Why didn’t he just go for Djibouti first? Or even Socotra? This is why I never want army generals in charge of a country, they’re too emotional

Nevermind Socotra, Djibouti was poised to become independent. Siad Barre was going to annex Djibouti if Ali Aref was declared president of Djibouti. Because that guy was pro-Ethiopia and anti-Somalia and they had stationed troops near the border.

Before the independence Siad Barre's administration sent lawyers to the UN to campaign for Djibouti independence.

He also managed to lobby the Arab League to pass a resolution for the independence of Djibouti.

He did the same as what he did with Ogaden he trained Djibouti Liberation Front and armed Djibouti liberation fighters. Originally Somalia wasn't trying to invade Ethiopia and he wanted to have the WSFL to liberate themselves with the indirect support of Somalia. He applied the same strategy with Djibouti.