… please read this article by Chuck Spinney, out today in Counterpunch. …

Spinney, whom I have known and respected for his national-security views since I wrote about him in National Defense, makes an important specific point and an even more important general one.

The specific point concerns the “Kosovo model,” the idea that the Clinton-era bombing campaign on Kosovo illustrates how pinpoint, punitive strikes might succeed in Syria. Spinney begins his piece thus:

“I found it truly scary to read that some high officials in the Obama Administration are so disconnected from reality that they consider the 1999 war in Kosovo to be a precedent for justifying limited cruise missile strikes in Syria.”

He goes on to explain how oversimplified he considers the current “Kosovo worked!” version of history to be.