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| Europe |
| Singer James Blunt 'prevented World War III' with Russia |
| 2010-11-14 |
| BRITISH singer James Blunt said his refusal to obey orders from an American general helped avert an international incident, and a potential Third World War. The You’re Beautiful singer, a former captain in the Life Guards - the senior regiment of the British Army - said in an interview today he risked a court martial by countermanding an order from General Wesley Clark to attack Russian forces. Blunt, then 25, was in command of British troops ordered to take control of Pristina Airfield in Kosovo in June 1999, during the Balkan conflict. However, 200 Russian soldiers got there first, and Blunt was asked to remove them. He said in an interview for BBC radio program Pienaar’s Politics that Col Clark wanted him to “destroy” the Russians. Blunt, now 36 and a patron of the UK Help for Heroes charity, was at the head of a column of 30,000 NATO troops with his unit. “I was given the direct command to overpower the 200 or so Russians who were there. I was the lead officer with my troop of men behind us ... The soldiers directly behind me were from the Parachute Regiment, so they’re obviously game for the fight," he said. “The direct command [that] came in from General Wesley Clark was to overpower them. Various words were used that seemed unusual to us. Words such as ‘destroy’ came down the radio,” he added. Blunt, who sometimes kept his guitar strapped to the side of his tank, also said that “we had 200 Russians lined up pointing their weapons at us aggressively ... and we’d been told to reach the airfield and take ahold of it. That’s why we were querying our instruction. "Fortunately, up on the radio came [commander of the British forces] General Mike Jackson, whose exact words at the time were, ‘I’m not going to have my soldiers be responsible for starting World War III. “He told us, why don’t we encircle the airfield instead? And after a couple of days the Russians there said, ‘Hang on, we have no food and no water. Can we share the airfield with you?’" The musician insisted that even if Jackson had not intervened, he would have refused to carry out the order from Col Clark, who was in overall command. |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #9 LOL Glenmore |
| Posted by: ryuge 2010-11-14 17:39 |
| #8 Someone with the name "Wesley" should never be a general. Anyway, maybe we should remember this guy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasili_Arkhipov |
| Posted by: European Conservative 2010-11-14 16:08 |
| #7 Might have done a lot of good if we could have gotten the Russians to take over the whole thing in Kosovo (with the knowledge that they would be held accountable before the world if their Serb friends did anything nasty). Such a move could have (a) Gotten Russians transport troops out of East Germany and into the Balkens (with our transportation help if needed) (b) stroked their fragile egos that they were still a great power able to protect their friends and (c) Kept us out of a conflict we really had no interest in. At the same time we should have worked with the Ex-Warsaw pact to create a NEUTRAL military alliance that could act as a buffer between Western Europe and Russia making both sides happy. Such an alliance could have purchased Russian arms to ensure the Russians felt they had some interest in it. Such an alliance could also have kept the Russian paranoia down and provided Peacekeepers for UN missions that didn't have as much baggage. Of course either move required a bit more forward thinking than anyone seemed to have during the day. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2010-11-14 15:52 |
| #6 I have first hand knowledge of this event on the day in question. Nobody had any idea that the Russians were anywhere near Kosovo, let alone Pristina Airfield. Early morning photos showed BMPs and other vehicles placed on the runway to prevent landings. Not sure what transpired between Wesley and the Brits, but the American forces were readying to take the place by force. Everyone was told to stand down before any shots were fired, but from my vantage point on the operations net, we were very close to attacking the Russians. Afterward everyone was thinking "WTF" but I suppose both of the stories (Blunts and Jacksons) make sense. On a side note I would add that since we saw no Russian columns or air traffic into Pristina IMHO the equipment was Serbian with Russian markings. |
| Posted by: Cyber Sarge 2010-11-14 15:21 |
| #5 "Weaselly" Clark had a bad reputation among his peers. One referred to him as a "gifted self-promotarian". "Interviews with a wide variety of current and retired military officials reveal that Clark was disliked by only three groups: Those whom ranked above him in the chain of command whom he ignored, his peers at the same rank whom he lied to, and those serving beneath him whom he micromanaged. Other than that, everyone liked him." "The simplest, most likely reason for the scathing, if vague, criticisms of Clark from former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Henry Hugh Shelton and Defense Secretary William Cohen, is this: As NATO commander, Wesley Clark had problems with the Pentagon's chain of command. When Clark's bosses didn't agree with him, he just went around them." (Jumping the chain by going to Sandy Berger and Madeline Albright.) More |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2010-11-14 13:54 |
| #4 "Blunt prevents WWIII" - if everybody's stoned nobody can fight? |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2010-11-14 13:17 |
| #3 Another attempt at re-writing WWII history. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2010-11-14 12:26 |
| #2 Jackson's version of what happened. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2010-11-14 11:17 |
| #1 ...THIS twink was a Captain in one of the British Army's most elite regiments? Takes all kinds, I guess. OTOH, still waiting to hear the full story of how that moron Clark damn near started a shootout (wouldn't have been war - think instead a REALLY good Tom Clancy scenario) between us and the Mike |
| Posted by: Mike Kozlowski 2010-11-14 10:37 |