On Mon, Nov 15, 2010 at 8:40 PM, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11753050
>
> Singer James Blunt 'prevented World War III'
>
> Singer James Blunt has told the BBC how he refused an order to attack
> Russian troops when he was a British soldier in Kosovo.Blunt said he was
> willing to risk a court martial by rejecting the order from a US General.
>
> But he was backed by British Gen Sir Mike Jackson, who said: "I'm not going
> to have my soldiers be responsible for starting World War III."
>
> Blunt was ordered to seize an airfield, but the Russians had got there
> first.
>
> In an interview with BBC Radio 5 live, broadcast on Sunday, he said: "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.
>
> "The direct command [that] came in from Gen Wesley Clark was to overpower
> them. Various words were used that seemed unusual to us. Words such as
> 'destroy' came down the radio."
>
> 'Mad situation'
> The confusion surrounding the taking of Pristina airfield in 1999 has been
> written about in political memoirs, and was widely reported at the time.
>
> But this is the first time Blunt has given an account of his role in the
> incident.
>
> Blunt, who was at the head of a column of 30,000 Nato troops with his unit,
> told Pienaar's Politics it was a "mad situation".
>
> He said he had been "party to the conversation" between senior officers in
> which Gen Clark had ordered the attack.
>
> "We had 200 Russians lined up pointing their weapons at us aggressively,
> which was... and you know we'd been told to reach the airfield and take a
> hold of it.
>
> "And if we had a foothold there then it would make life much easier for the
> Nato forces in Pristina. So there was a political reason to take hold of
> this.
>
> "And the practical consequences of that political reason would be then
> aggression against the Russians."
>
> Court martial
>
> Asked if following the order would have risked starting World War III,
> Blunt, who was a 25-year-old cavalry officer at the time, replied:
> "Absolutely. And that's why we were querying our instruction from an
> American general.
>
> "Fortunately, up on the radio came Gen Mike Jackson, whose exact words at
> the time were, 'I'm not going to have my soldiers be responsible for
> starting World War III', and told us why don't we sugar off down the road,
> you know, 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?'."
>
> If Gen Jackson had not blocked the order from Gen Clark, who as Nato
> Supreme Commander Europe was his superior officer, Blunt said he would still
> have declined to follow it, even at the risk of a court martial.
>
> He said: "There are things that you do along the way that you know are
> right, and those that you absolutely feel are wrong, that I think it's
> morally important to stand up against, and that sense of moral judgement is
> drilled into us as soldiers in the British army."
>
> Blunt left the Army in 2002 to pursue a career in music, later scoring a
> worldwide hit with You're Beautiful.
>
>
>
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-- ********************************************************* Alan P. Rudy Dept. Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work Central Michigan University 124 Anspach Hall Mt Pleasant, MI 48858 517-881-6319