Chapter 715 Strictly affilied diplomatic note

Li Mo seems to be distracted at the meeting of the National Defense Commission, but in fact it is not. What he will consider now is also Ethiopia's creation of tension on the border map and provoking the Somali army.

The relationship between Ethiopia and Somalia is generally relatively harmonious. Ethiopia has always been committed to maintaining peace in Somalia, mediating disputes between armed warlords in Somalia, and even sending troops to assist Somalia's temporary political axe to fight against local armed warlords. Although these are all things in the previous life, Li Mo also knows something about it.

In this life, because of the appearance of Li Mo, after the establishment of the temporary political axe in Somalia, it is not as nominal as in the previous life, and even the capital Mogadishu is not fully controlled, so it is common that the door of the political axe is not available. In this life, because of the emergence of Li Mo, he actively united with those aspiring people who were willing to give up their ambitions and desires for the reunification of Somalia, and did not hesitate to crack down on the armed warlords controlled by ambitious and conspirators, and severely suppressed the radical organization "Shabaab" that did the greatest harm to Somalia in the previous life. The forces within Somalia and the secretly controlled "Shabaab" controlled by Comrade bin Laden to shift positions have eliminated the greatest threat to the peaceful reunification of Somalia.

Without internal contradictions, Ethiopia's 'contribution' to the peaceful reunification of Somalia is much smaller, but because of what it did for Somalia before Limo controlled Somalia, the Somali political axe is still very grateful. The cooperation between the two sides in agriculture, tourism and other aspects is also very pleasant, and because Ethiopian There is no access to the sea, and many trade in goods has also passed through Somaliland. Somalia's political axe has also set up no obstacles to Ethiopia's foreign trade.

It can be said that except for territorial disputes in the era of warlords, there are not too many contradictions between the two sides, and even the cooperative relationship is very close.

Somalia needs a peaceful and stable internal and external environment to develop the economy, and Ethiopia also needs a stable surrounding environment for economic and social reform and the implementation of the second five-year plan. Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles, who has been in power for nearly 30 years? Under the leadership of Zenawi, Ethiopia is also actively emerging from poverty.

At this time, as long as the brain is broken, or there is a great need for interests, with Meles's control and the ability to control Ethiopia, he will never do such a thing to create border friction.

It is true that Ethiopia's military strength is much stronger than that of Kenya. The country has 210,000 troops, including 200,000 in the army and 10,000 in the air force, and the annual military expenditure is about 400 million US dollars, which is also more for an African country. And because Ethiopia has had many military coups, civil wars and foreign border conflicts in a few decades, the army is also somewhat combative. Somalia can defeat Kenya and Somaliland. In addition to its advanced weapons than the two countries and regions, it also occupies a lot of land and interests, and the size of the Somali army is larger than that of the two countries and regions. But compared with Ethiopia, the size of the army is far behind, only one-third of it.

After the full peace of the border conflict in Ethiopia in 2000, Ethiopia has begun to disarm and turn some regular troops into security forces and reserves. After the disintegration of the former Soviet Union, Ethiopia's silence gradually moved closer to the West, not counting the large amount of assistance from Western countries every year, even within the Egyptian army, there are some United States. [***] The instructor is responsible for training the Ethiopian army.

In terms of weapons and equipment, Ethiopia is basically dominated by Soviet-made weapons, with 250 T-54/55 tanks, 100 T-62 tanks, 50 T-72 tanks, and 300 armored vehicles, forming 32 tank battalions, which is the most important part of the regular army. The mechanized force. Various helicopters include 60 helicopters, including Mi-4, Mi-14, Mi-17, Mi-24 and Cougar; 21 MiG-21 fighters, Su-2718, 32 MiG-23F attack aircraft, 4 Su-25 attack aircraft, and a number of old transport aircraft.

Most of these weapons and equipment have been in service for a long time, and are basically purchased in the 1970s and 1980s and 1990s. Because of Ethiopia's economic strength, the maintenance of many technical weapons is also insufficient. According to the analysis of the Somali intelligence department, Ethiopia's military equipment is only partially purchased in the 1990s. In addition to more advanced weapons, the utilization rate of other weapons is less than 60%.

Even so, Ethiopia's military strength should not be underestimated. At least the base of others is large, and because it has not experienced more than ten years of civil strife like Somalia, it has little damage to infrastructure and economy, and its comprehensive potential is very strong.

And because of the high mountains in Ethiopia, the East African Rift Valley penetrates the whole territory. The terrain is very dangerous and belongs to the kind of place that is easy to defend and difficult to attack. Although the unopened checkpoints in modern war have no practical effect, for a mountain country, resisting foreign aggression has an innate advantage over those coastal plain countries. Somalia is almost flat, except for parts of the northeast and southwest, and because it is a thorough coastal country, there is no strategic depth, and the war with Ethiopia is at a disadvantage.

A landlocked country is indeed a country where the enemy has a headache. Unless, like the United States, open the way with ammunition regardless of the cost, no matter what line of defense you have, first hit a missile, and then the roaring fighter attack aircraft bomber drops a guided bomb, a drill bomb, and everything will be blown up for you. The United States may be able to afford the cost of war, but Somalia certainly can't afford it.

"I think it will be done as Minister Palermo said. Let the Ministry of Foreign Affairs say it first. If not, I think the General Staff and the Somaliland Military Region can first formulate a small-scale counterattack plan. Once Ethiopia is unable to stop this unilateral military provocation diplomatically, we must give the other party a little color. However, the military action plan should be small rather than large, and should be fast rather than slow. We should beat the other party honestly, so that some people can see our determination to defend the country's territorial and sovereign integrity and the interests of the people. We should see that Somalia is no longer the chaotic country in the past. Under the leadership of the political axe, the Somali political axe and the army have the ability to resist any aggressor and peeping.

When the members who represented the two opinions of the first to salute the soldiers and the preemptive were about the same, Li Mo said in time.

One hammer to the tone! Li Mo's words were equivalent to agreeing with Palermo's opinion, but he also proposed to fight back severely by military means.

This method synthesizes the opinions of both sides. Although it is not ideal, everyone has no objection and is soon unanimously adopted.

As soon as the meeting of the National Defense Commission was over, the Somali Ministry of Foreign Affairs immediately summoned the Ethiopian ambassador to Somalia to express a strong protest against the other party.

Not long after, the Somali ambassador to Ethiopia submitted a formal diplomatic note of the Somali political axe to the Ethiopian diplomatic department, protesting the provocation of the Ethiopian political axe military on the border, and solemnly warned the Ethiopian political axe that if Ethiopia unilaterally creates border tension. A series of consequences caused by the atmosphere will be borne by the Ethiopian political axe. Finally, it solemnly states that the Somali political axe does not rule out any means to respond to the provocation of Somalia.

This tough and stern diplomatic note has caused a huge shock to Ethiopia's political axe. Because from this protest, everyone feels the hidden murderous spirit in it, and everyone does not hesitate that once the provocation of the Ethiopian border troops is not effectively stopped, Somalia will definitely respond by 'any means'.

When the protest letter spread to the outside world, it attracted the attention of international public opinion. Some media have even changed the terrorist list of "The Second East African War is about to break out" on the front page.

With this protest, the actual move of the Somali army is frightening. The spokesman of the Somali military announced the next morning that in order to better complete the disarmament plan of the Somali army, the Somali National Defense Force will mobilize and change the defense within this week. I hope that the outside world will not **. It's all normal military mobilization.

The four military regions immediately began to deploy troops. Several main forces have been deployed to the strategic points stationed on the border between Somalia and Ethiopia, and all border checkpoints connected to the Ethiopian border have also strengthened their protection and vigilance.

War seems to be on the verge of breaking out!

As the deputy commander-in-chief of the Somali National Defense Force, in fact, the first leader of the National Defense Force, Li Mo can't be idle in the office.

First of all, the call of the commanders of the four major military regions and the commanders of the main forces. Each military region hopes to put this possible self-defense counterattack in its own military region, and the commanders of the main forces hopes to enable their troops to carry out this task.

Soldiers, it's not their turn to care about whether to fight or not, but once the superior decides, they can't lag behind others. These days, except for a few countries, most of the troops have never even experienced war. Although the Somali National Defense Forces have been "lucky" to fight several times, they quickly won the war with an absolute advantage. Ethiopia is different from the previous Kenya and Somaliland, which is comparable to Somalia. Once you fight, it's definitely not easy.

And at this time, it is the right time for soldiers to make contributions. Usually, Li Mo instilled the idea of meritorious service and promotion in the whole army. In the Somali army, doves are almost non-existent. Even if there are, most of them are some civilian staff in the three headquarters and the headquarters of the military region. Those who can serve as force commanders are all militants.

Soldiers who don't want to be generals are not good soldiers. Since the reform in Somalia, there have been less than 20 major generals and brigadier generals. There is a lot of room for everyone to rise. The company commander wants to be promoted to battalion commander, the infantry brigade commander, the infantry brigade commander is promoted to the commander of the military region, and even the commander of the three headquarters, the military commander, and the National Defense Commission. Members and so on.

Li Mo is still very satisfied with the eager attitude of his subordinates. At present, although we still focus on economic construction and national defense construction, we can't one-sidedly pursue economic construction or national defense construction, and we can't use these reasons to erase the positive surnames of military officers and soldiers. But you can't be exhausted. Li Mo is still very confident about how to grasp a degree.

What really gave Li Mo a headache was the 'private phone call' from several close state dignitaries to explore whether Mali was really going to war.

(to be continued)