The Kosovo War
Warfare
History Hit
4.5 • 943 Ratings
🗓️ 25 July 2022
⏱️ 41 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The war in Ukraine has left many of us aghast that open armed conflict could again erupt on the European continent... except the idea of a peaceful post-WW2 Europe is hardly historically correct.
The Kosovo War of 1999 is but one example. Over 78 days NATO aircraft bombarded the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia's forces into submission, achieving a swift victory without a single ground troop having to be deployed.
The conflict has been described as Tony Blair's 'Perfect War', but is this accurate? In this episode James is joined by author and former UK diplomat Arthur Snell to find out.
Arthur's new book How Britain Broke the World is available here.
This episode was edited by Aidan Lonergan.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The famous five are away on a splendid weekend adventure. |
| 0:03.5 | Do we have to go home today? |
| 0:05.5 | sighed Anne. |
| 0:06.5 | I agree said Dick. |
| 0:08.0 | Even Timmy looks sad. |
| 0:09.5 | Cheer up everyone. |
| 0:11.5 | Beams Julian, I booked long weekend tickets we can return anytime on Monday |
| 0:17.0 | Oh you are clever Julian said Anne save over 50% with the long weekend a ticket from Great Western Railway. |
| 0:24.5 | Adventures start here. |
| 0:26.0 | Selected routes turn supply, saving in comparison to an anytime return fare. You're not. The war in Ukraine has left many of us shocked and aghast at how the European continent could once again |
| 0:57.4 | witness the brutality of opened armed conflict. Wars may happen elsewhere in the world, it had been argued, but Europe had out learnt the horrors of war |
| 1:07.2 | after the barbarism of World War II, or at least it was meant to have. |
| 1:12.2 | Well I'm your host James Rogers this is the warfare |
| 1:13.9 | podcast and while the idea of a peaceful Europe is an admirable one it is by no |
| 1:18.1 | means historically correct. The Kosovo War in recent history in 1999 is but one example. |
| 1:25.1 | In March 99 to halt the humanitarian catastrophe that was unfolding in Kosovo, |
| 1:30.2 | NATO launched an air campaign, Operation Allied Force against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. |
| 1:36.0 | Over the next 78 days, NATO aircraft flew over 10,000 sorties, |
| 1:40.0 | while the Kosovo Liberation Army fought on the ground until the Yugoslav forces had withdrawn |
| 1:45.9 | from the Kosovo region. The victory was swift for NATO, and unique in that member nations |
| 1:51.4 | did not deploy masses of ground troops. Instead they relied |
| 1:54.8 | on air power. In fact, NATO recorded zero combat fatalities in this conflict. At first was some |
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