This little piece of history has almost gone down the memory hole:
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.
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"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."(1)
Part of the long term destruction of Yugoslavia was about eliminating Russian influence and clear-cutting for the development of capitalist relations, as Yugoslavia was a nominally independent 'socialist', or non-capitalist, country standing between Greece and the rest of Europe. The Western powers did many things to destabilize the region: illicitly supplying arms, encouraging and funding nationalist parties, quickly recognizing breakaway provinces, blocking access to the international capital markets, to further these aims. The Bosnian war was the final stage in this process; by the fervor of Mr. Clark it is pretty obvious the war had little to do with human rights and everything to do geo-political dominance. Russia obviously understood this too, but in the end Pristina airport 'fell' peaceably and it would be another decade - in Georgia - before Russia was able to counter advances into its historical buffer zone.
1'Singer James Blunt 'prevented World War III'' - BBC News UK
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