[OT] Re: UK/US in balkans (as the UN)

In a message dated 1/19/00 7:58:48 AM Pacific Standard Time, 
Thomas.Barclay@sofkin.ca writes:

> One interesting point that Alan brough up:
>  
>  The airport being occupied by Russian troops. As I understand it, the
Brits
>  were ready to go with their tanks and Gurkhas and whatnot, and they
got a
>  "STOP, WAIT 1" order from the UN command because for political
reasons it
>  was expedient for the US to be the first force in. But they were
slower
>  being ready to go. The Brit general apparently said all manner of
>  unprintable things. Meanwhile, the Russian area commander picked up
on the
>  situation, and decided he wanted to be a player with or without
Moscow's
>  permission. So off he went. Then when the US/UK UN force heard the
Russians
>  were inbound, they said "GO! GO! GO FAST!" and it was a frantic
scramble
>  which we know the Russians actually won. 

Well, the Russians had the advantage in that they could afford to deploy
a 
large contingent and do it directly from Bosnia and drive straight
through 
Yugoslavia to Kosovo.  The Russian Seperate Airborne Brigade's sector in

Bosnia is Serbian and thus very quiet for them so it didn't become an
issue 
(to them) to pull the troops they did off the line and send them to
Pristina. 
 I remember this since I was at Camp McGovern at the time, the closest
US 
basecamp to the Russians and the morning update brief was full of alot
of 
"What the F*&^'s?!?"  SFOR was not supposed to be involved in any way,
shape, 
or form with the Kosovo mission, but that didn't stop the RSAB commander
from 
taking his actions, even if he was notionaly under the command of the US

general of that region (the Russians are as prickly as us Yanks with 
accepting foreign command).

Chris Ruhl