In hindsight the war was a absolute disaster and the reason Somalia as a State collapsed. While Somalia was a up and coming nation they were nowhere near the level of self suffiancy to be able to say F You to the worlds superpowers and go it alone. I think gradually chipping away, and pursuing diplomatic means while building a stronger Somalia would have helped.
Btw, lets be honest Somalia as it was, was big enough to home the entire Somali race and then some. I don't understand why the Somalis in NFD, Galbeed, etc. could have been slowly absorbed incorporated into the current borders. In a game of dice we sacrificed what we had just so we could get more, and we looked like ruthless agressors to the int'l community.
Though the NFD is a useless piece of wasteland, it might have had some natural resources i.e. in the form of minerals or oil. Plus it is Somali land so why should they give it up. Third, you can never have too much land; esp. considering that Somalia is not resource rich.
Djibouti is also Somali land. It is also a major port and if Somalia controlled that port it could have large number of operational ports which could service the east and central african countries and it could be a big if not dominant logistics centre for east africa.
The Ogaden should be obvious. Beside the irridentist motivations, With the Ogaden Somali would be much less of an upstream country to ethiopia vis a vis the Jubba and Shabelle rivers, hence giving it greater control over water use of the rivers. With the large land would also come the natural resources of the region.
So Somalia could have been a major logistics centre, mineral and agri-products exporter as well as becoming a stronger power.
But they were too ambitious and acted too hastily without the required resources/support. In the end it was Al-Qadr, it just wasn't meant to be.
