LOL - I think Darkness was replying sarcastically to Warlord since he tried to hijack your thread a bit.
Anyway, it shouldn't be this difficult to engage Galbadia - it should happen even if you hadn't finished the sidequests (I engaged them too early by accident on my first playthrough and had to reset the game from my last save - LOL), so the only thing I can think of is either
1. There's something major you haven't done (did you defeat Fujin and Raijin in Balamb?)
2. There's a bug in your disc 2 (In which case I'd rent FF8 from Blockbuster or someplace and just play the war with Galbadia Garden - disc 2 ends right after that anyway)
3. There's some reason your game is being stubborn in which case I'd still resort to renting the FF8 game to get past disc 2.
I hope you figure it out - I'd be so frustrated if I were you!
