General Wesley Clark almost got the US into a Third World War. From the BBC March 9, 2000:

For the first time, the key players in the tense confrontation between NATO and Russian troops talk about the stand-off which jeopardised the entire peacekeeping mission. The Russians, who played a crucial role in persuading Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to end the war, had expected to police their own sector of Kosovo, independent of NATO. When they did not get it, they felt double-crossed.

As Nato’s K-For peacekeepers prepared to enter the province on 12 June, they discovered the Russians had got there first. A contingent of 200 troops, stationed in Bosnia, was already rolling towards Pristina airport.

‘Third World War’

General Wesley Clark, Nato’s supreme commander, immediately ordered 500 British and French paratroopers to be put on standby to occupy the airport. ”I called the [NATO] Secretary General [Javier Solana] and told him what the circumstances were,” General Clark tells the BBC programme Moral Combat: NATO at War. ”He talked about what the risks were and what might happen if the Russian’s got there first, and he said: ‘Of course you have to get to the airport’. ‘I said: ‘Do you consider I have the authority to do so?’ He said: ‘Of course you do, you have transfer of authority’.” But General Clark’s plan was blocked by General Sir Mike Jackson, K-For’s British commander.

“I’m not going to start the Third World War for you,” he reportedly told General Clark during one heated exchange.

Read the full article for yourself.

General Clark did not stay in his NATO role as long as Commanders before him. He was downsized by Clinton prior to 3 years on the job.

NATO’s General Wesley Clark is the first military leader in our country’s recent history who won a war without receiving a Fifth Avenue parade.

Instead of being lionized, he got just what the rest of the U.S. Army has gotten in the last decade: downsized. The Pentagon’s spin is, “This is a normal rotation, his tour was just shortened.” It was shortened, all right. A review of past NATO skippers shows they had four to five years in the job as opposed to Clark’s less than three.

So what went wrong?

Was it Clark’s apocalyptic order to use NATO forces for blocking Russia’s end run at the Kosovo air base, or his threats to have NATO sea power stop Russian ships from supplying the Serb army with oil? Either act of bad judgement could well have triggered a nuclear war with Russia.

Was it because Clark and his flacks kept crowing about how NATO was destroying the Serb army, when in truth NATO barely laid a glove on its opponent?

Was it because Clark’s $120,000 U.S. Army Mercedes — with a reported highly classified radio system aboard — was car-jacked while his wife used it as a personal vehicle to drive to the golf course?

Read the full article for yourself.