1977 war plan

[Hanad_shanaad]

Why didn't siad barre first convince Djibouti to unite and then invade through the Awash river valley if his intention was to take over Addis Ababa it bores deep into the mountains of Ethiopia.

Thats exactly the sort of genius mind mentality Somalis need. The Somalis don't think sis. They have dictators who think they are god's gift to earth. Normal nations have intelligence communities and intellectuals that study enemy lands, terrain, their economies, their demographics. With superior knowledge and information being power you can lift the world with you finger.

The wars are always poorly planned, poorly executed and whats worse is Somalis think that they gave it their best shot.

 

[Yahya]

Eritrea didn’t have fighter planes in ‘77. Also, they didn’t get independence until ‘91.

You’re also giving them way too much “take out major military bases and capture the capital” kulaha. At that point the war is over lol

Also, this wildfire would harm the Somali troops more than the ethiopian troops. Creating a giant wildfire in a forest just to stop ethiopian troops from attacking gedo? We’re on the offensive, the battlefield is in Ethiopia, not in Somalia. Why would you worry about defense? You’re just blocking your own retreat route.

Your plan is pretty bad, I’m not a military strategist but even I know that this is just wishful thinking. Siad Barre was doing a good job and would have won the war, but because of foreign entities the war was turned around and somalia was doomed to lose regardless of what it did.

Only thing I would have changed would be to strengthen diplomacy to prevent that.

Tariq IBM Zahid burned every ship of his fleet when he landed at Gibraltar. This was to enforce the idea of no retreat and to remove all hope of returning to the motherland. Such a psychological tactic can sometimes inspire courage and bravery in the men, knowing that they have no hope for retreat, they would fight for heir lives and either leave behind a legacy or die on the battlefield being deemed unworthy of ever returning home after their defeat.

It's not always effective, but not every soldier is brave and some need their hearts to be strengthened before battle. Luckily our people are lions and don't fear death. But for some soldiers you need to give them no hope of retreat or they will abandon their posts prematurely.

 

[The Inquisitive]

We won tactically speaking.

And no fellas don't delude yourself into thinking the USSR and their allies switched sides because "we went for Addis Ababa", we captured 90% of western Somalia at most. USSR switched sides before the war started. Yemen and Cuba acted hostile towards Somalia in the meetings in Yemen, Castro called Jaalle Siyaad chauvinist for saying Somalia won't agree to the proposed confederation between Ethiopia, Yemen and Somalia unless all Somali people live under one state. Yemen accused Somalia of trying to steal "Ethiopian" land and the USSR was on board with this. USSR and Cuba were building their empire of satellite states countering the US hegemony and chose to back Ethiopia even before the war commenced. It was such a blunder that Somalia went on to try and liberate western Somalia without finding reliable allies, they tried to get military backing from USA but they reluctantly funneled only 200 million dollars through Saudi Arabia, they insured USSR backed Ethiopia, Yemen and Cuba won't invade Somalia proper though.