# Wesley Clark: US was planning to attack seven Muslim states **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 23, 2003, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wesley-clark-us-was-planning-to-attack-seven-muslim-states/203241 "2003-09-23T03:43:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Xploder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/a183cd/32.png) [@Xploder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xploder)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2003, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wesley-clark-us-was-planning-to-attack-seven-muslim-states/203241/61 "2003-09-26T00:26:58Z")
[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/671495.stm](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/671495.stm) Here’s a guy, (Clark) who wanted to start WWIII and you seriously want him to be POTUS? Also, saying: > [@](#): > > Also given the massive amount of politics in the 2 star and above General level ranks of the Army over power, control and prestige , is about as useful as saying there’s a lot of politics in the Senate and House. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2003, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wesley-clark-us-was-planning-to-attack-seven-muslim-states/203241/62 "2003-09-26T00:50:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Xploder \* > \*\*[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/671495.stm](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/671495.stm) > > Here’s a guy, (Clark) who wanted to start WWIII and you seriously want him to be POTUS?..\*\* Nowhere in that article does it say that Clark wanted to start WWIII. ---
**Author:** ![Xploder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/a183cd/32.png) [@Xploder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xploder)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2003, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wesley-clark-us-was-planning-to-attack-seven-muslim-states/203241/63 "2003-09-26T00:57:00Z")
Sorry, I was using hyperbole to inidcate that the guy isn’t (and wasn’t) wrapped that tight. The relevant quote was from British General Sir Mike Jackson who said - > [@](#): > > 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. > > General Jackson tells the BBC: ‘‘We were [looking at] a possibility…of confrontation with the Russian contingent which seemed to me probably not the right way to start off a relationship with Russians who were going to become part of my command.’’ This was in response to Clark’s oder that 500 British and French paratroopers be put on standby to occupy the airport. You know, to prevent the eeevil Russians from occupying it first. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2003, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wesley-clark-us-was-planning-to-attack-seven-muslim-states/203241/64 "2003-09-26T01:35:28Z")
What I get from that article is that NATO feared that allowing the Russians to occupy the airport would lead to the partitioning of Kosovo. The Secretary General of NATO supported Clark’s decision. So if Clark isn’t “wrapped that tight” then neither is Javier Solana. Just because General Jackson thought that it might lead to WWIII doesn’t mean that that was really likely. Solana and Clark didn’t seem to have to have any fear of that, so it apparently isn’t as clear cut as some people seem to think. ---
**Author:** ![Xploder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/a183cd/32.png) [@Xploder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xploder)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2003, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wesley-clark-us-was-planning-to-attack-seven-muslim-states/203241/65 "2003-09-26T01:47:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by davidm \* > \*\*What I get from that article is that NATO feared that allowing the Russians to occupy the airport would lead to the partitioning of Kosovo. The Secretary General of NATO supported Clark’s decision. So if Clark isn’t “wrapped that tight” then neither is Javier Solana. Just because General Jackson thought that it might lead to WWIII doesn’t mean that that was really likely. Solana and Clark didn’t seem to have to have any fear of that, so it apparently isn’t as clear cut as some people seem to think. \*\* Okay, I went back and re-read it again for what seems like the hundredth time. From what I read, it wasn’t the fact of the Russians occupying the airport that the SecGen thought would lead to the partitioning of Kosovo but actually: > [@](#): > > During the stand-off, Moscow insisted its troops would be answerable only to its own commanders. > > Nato refused to accept this, predicting it would lead to the partition of Kosovo into an ethnic Albanian south and a Serbian north. I don’t know about you, but I don’t see any partitioning goin on and the Russians are under their OWN command, not NATO’s. Solana could only base a decision on what Clark told him. He pretty much HAS to take the word of his military commanders on military matters. I just think that Clark was way, WAY overboard on this one. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wesley-clark-us-was-planning-to-attack-seven-muslim-states/203241.md?page=3)