Only 3 people know how close we came to a third World War and instant evaporation in 1999.
Two of them are generals and the third is a peddler of songs so sugary that his records come with a health warning from the British Diabetic Society.
The Kosovo conflict was in full cry when a regiment of British soldiers were ordered to occupy Pristina Airport but were beaten to it by a contingent of 200 Russian troops who had entered Kosovo ahead of them and took control of the airfield.
The lead officer was none other than James Blunt and he was given the order over the radio by NATO commander General Wesley Clarke to 'destroy' the Russians.
Blunt refused and was backed by British General Sir Mike Jackson, who told Clarke that he was "not going to have my soldiers be responsible for starting World War 3 for you".
Blunt went on to become a singer and professional toff while Clarke was removed from his NATO position before his term was due to expire and went on to contest the 2004 US election.
Two things come out of this story. The first is who would have thought that the man who sang 'You're beautiful' is who we give our thanks to for not attacking the Russians which would have resulted in me not being here to type this and you not being sat there reading it.
Secondly, General Wesley Clarke sounds like a nutter who attempted a run at the Presidency where he would have been in charge of a nuclear armed military with no General Jackson's around to tell him to pull his head in.
Luckily, John Kerry beat him to the Democrat nomination but we had a lucky escape there. We almost had a trigger happy madman sitting in the White House from 2004 until 2008 instead of...oh yeah.
13 comments:
It's a great story, isn’t it? A bit like David Hasselhoff single-handedly tearing down the Berlin Wall.
As usual, I love The Daily Mash’s reaction.
This made me choke on my coffee.
"Was I supposed to say, 'ignore that order unless you are planning to write a series of simpering ballads that will be included on Valentine's Day compilation albums for fucking ever?'.
Lucy, many of our world leaders (especially those on the other side of the Atlantic) are clearly insane.
The Cuban crisis was another incident that relied on Russian commonsense and intelligence and maturity to avoid nuclear war.
But one day, the chips will fall, and we'll be in the middle of a holocaust. And which nation do you think is most likely to precipitate it?
The deluded, violent nation that thinks it's Exceptional, the Beacon on the Hill, the Greatest Nation in the History of the World, the one that's appointed itself the Leader of the World!
What do you do for laughs, Dave?
Read your comments, Cheezy!
That's better, now you're coming along nicely!
I heard that the Russians backed off during the cuban missile crises because the USA actually got a B52 (carrying a nuke) over Moscow...
q
David - do you do anything except obsess over and rant about the USA? Your obsession is serioulsy not good for you.
I guess I shouldn't be concerned that imperial, paranoid, nuclear-armed America, with its policy of endless war, most threatens the survival of the world, q.
It's a silly thing to worry about I know, dying in a nuclear firestorm, but I just can't help myself.
I keep thinking about all the innocent people and kids who'll die too, needlessly sacrificed to further the insatiable greed of America, to help it achieve its elitist, racist, Christian Fundamentalist goals.
Pray for me, q! Better still, read some of the articles on Information Clearing House. You might get up to speed with what is happening in your country!
More penetrating insights...
Penetrating insights are not something you'd ever be accused of, Cheese, old son!
It's people like you who allow people like q. to go unchallenged. It must be because you know nothing about America! Why don't you Google how many military bases they have and enlighten yourself. Why don't you browse through Information Clearing Houses yourself, get yourself involved in 2010 rather than 1945!
And Cheese, there are 300 million war-loving folk just as indoctrinated and unthinking as q. is back where he comes from.
That's the worry.
"War bad, waah-waah-waah"... "America bad, waaah-waah-waah"... "People who don't believe exactly what I do, indoctrinated, waaah-waah-waah"... "did I say 'indoctrinated' again? good!, waah-waah-waah"... etc. etc...
Thank you, Noam Chomsky. A sage analysis of the situation.
lucy,
your own logic defeats your point.
your argument broken down:
- the americans are nutters and take every chance they can to get someone else to start ww3...
- luckily for us the brits, french, and germans won't fall for our stupid tricks
- the most important defeat of your own argument is that W (an absolute wack job, nut case, murdering, insane, lying cowboy) was in office for 8 years and he never managed to launch a single nuke... hmmmmm
- the cheap shots at W do get somewhat tiring. i'd love to see you increase your cheap shots, but direct them at obama for a while please... after all he didn't undo anything in cuba, iraq, afghanistan, or pakistan that he said he would - is it possible that David G is right and all americans are nutters no matter what they say to get elected... it is possible
q
I have gone to kick Obama a few times but held back slighlty as the argument that he inherited his problems rather than created them is a strong one but i'm sure a post kicking Obama for not keeping his promises will be coming up soon q.
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