'I stopped World War Three by refusing US orders to destroy Russian forces,' claims James Blunt
By Andrea Magrath
15th November 2010
The Daily Mail
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1329822/James-Blunt-stopped-World-War-3-refusing-destroy-Russian-forces.html#ixzz15P7AlbCc
James Blunt's refusal to obey orders during the Balkans war prevented the start of World War Three, the singer has claimed.
The 36-year-old chart-topping singer made the stunning claims in an interview with John Pienaar on Radio 5 Live's Pienaar's Politics.
Blunt, a former cavalry officer in the British Army, was leading a NATO column under order to seize the Pristina airfield in Kosovo in 1999.
Facing a 200-strong Russian advance, the then- 25-year-old was given orders to 'destroy' the Russian troops by the Supreme Allied Commander of the NATO Forces in Europe.
'I was given a direct command to overpower the 200 or so Russians who were there,' the You're Beautiful hitmaker has revealed for the first time.
'I was the lead officer, with my troop of men behind us... It was a mad situation.'
'The direct command 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 said his men were given orders by the American general to 'reach the airfield and take a hold of it.'
But Blunt - who served under his real name James Blount - says: 'We had 200 Russians lined up pointing their weapons at us aggressively.'
The singer, who has gone on to sell over 11 million albums since leaving the forces in October 2002, risked a court martial by refusing to go along with the orders to attack, a command he feared would spark a major conflict with Russia.
'I was declining my order. I was very clear on that,' 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 sense of moral judgment is drilled into us as soldiers in the British army.'
Blunt's instinct was backed by the commander of the British Forces. 'Fortunately, the singer remembered, 'Up on the radio came General Sir Mike Jackson, whose words were, "I'm not going to have my soldiers start World War Three."
'He told us why don't we sugar off down the road and, you know, encircle the airfield instead.'
When quizzed on whether he thought following General Clark's order would have started World War Three, the musician replied: 'Absolutely,' adding that he would have refused the command regardless of Sir Mike Jackson's intervention.
Blunt, who wrote the track No Bravery during his stint in Kosovo, says he was deeply affected by his time serving in the Balkans.
'War is an absolutely terrible, ghastly thing,' he said. 'I wouldn't bother describing the things we saw.'
No Bravery was included on his multi-platinum album Back To Bedlam - recorded just months after he left the military - and became a theme for protesters of the war in Iraq.
Blunt performed at the Help for Heroes benefit concert at Twickenham in September. He is currently promoting new album Some Kind of Trouble in the US.
singers
Subscribe To
Posts
Comments