General Wesley Clark, (click here) 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'....
...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.
A deal on the deployment of Russian peacekeepers was reached in early July.
The Russians now operate as part of K-For in sectors controlled by Nato states, but are not directly under Nato's command....
We saw the same kind of maneuver in the Crimea at the airport. The Russians sent in a ground presence to allow them to protect runways to begin an occupation.
They do this stupid stuff and it gets in the way of securing the region and instilling peace.
The tensions existed for two days, there was diplomacy (who know what that was, probably money) and it was over.
Some speculate Russia proves the limits of USA power when it does this stupid stuff. The thing is they make fools of themselves except within the borders of Russia. The Iranian boats follow the USA Ships in their wake and who knows what that means, but, it is probably the same muscle flexing for their own purpose. The all powerful Iranian boats can appear to threaten an attack while the USA runs away. Same stuff.
These fly-bys were never a real threat to the ship and if there was any detection of real danger the jet would not be in the air for very long. Why would the USA actually attack a jet with a human being piloting it? I am sure he/she has family to go home to. The same with the Iranian boats. The USA follows very specific attack scenarios and it doesn't begin with a jet or small boats. These countries know that. This is just mischief.
I think it is safe to say, Russia don't respect life, otherwise, why even go there.
