In Syria, as in Bosnia, the best situation is a negotiated peace, in which all sides are included. We achieved this in Bosnia by putting pressure on Milosevic through our bombardment, and through a Croat advance. But there is no equivalent of the Croat army in Syria, and it is difficult to predict how our bombardment would change the psychology of Assad, or make the rebels more likely to negotiate. So the real lesson of Bosnia does not lie in the tactics. Those depend entirely on the culture of Syria, its neighbours, and the conditions on the ground, and may have to change.