The Secretary (43 page)

I sat down and started grilling her. Was the United States going to support action
at the UN? Did the United States want a no-fly zone? Were the Arabs going to participate?
Even the French and the British were getting frustrated. Why was the United States
dillydallying?

Clinton said there were many ways to help the Libyan people; they had to make sure
that a resolution was carefully crafted so it didn’t get vetoed. She insisted the
United States was on the same page as its allies. Her answers felt like they amounted
to nothing. I pushed further.

“Gaddafi’s forces are advancing on Benghazi. The rebels seem to be losing ground day
by day, perhaps hour by hour. If Benghazi falls to Colonel Gaddafi because the United
States was seen to take its time deliberating, history won’t judge the Obama administration
very kindly, will it?”

Clinton sat still, her face impassive.

“The United States under President Obama is engaged in numerous efforts around the
world to ensure peace and stability. It is important that no one sees the United States
acting unilaterally. This is what we were criticized for in the not-so-distant past …
But I believe that we are moving in the right direction and that hopefully there will
be a consensus and the United States will be part of that consensus.”

I wondered whether the United States was shirking its responsibilities. I understood
the reluctance to go to war, but I was still perplexed by this apparent lack of urgency.

*   *   *

Sitting down with Clinton for the cameras, I didn’t know that the day before, around
ten in the evening while my colleagues and I were having dinner in the restaurant
hotel overlooking the Nile, the secretary had been on the phone to the White House
with her checklist. From her hotel suite, on a secure line, she had joined a National
Security Council meeting in the Situation Room: President Obama, Robert Gates, Vice
President Joe Biden, Mike Mullen, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Susan Rice on videoconference
line from the UN, and others.

Obama was trying to get American troops out of Afghanistan and out of Iraq—two Muslim
countries where the presence of infidels in camouflage continually stoked anti-American
sentiment. A war in a third Muslim country, with American jets in the sky, was the
last thing he wanted. Libyan rebels were clamoring for America to save them, but around
the world, saviors turned into occupiers or oppressors very quickly. For weeks now,
different options had been weighed, all the military and diplomatic scenarios carefully
scrutinized. Gates was a quiet, reticent man; he was fed up with what he described
as “loose talk” about a no-fly zone. People just didn’t think through what this meant
and what was needed to make it happen: the U.S. military would first have to take
out Gaddafi’s air defenses. America would be going to war again. Together with the
vice president and Mullen, he argued against action.

In Paris, Hillary had checked all her boxes; she knew how she would proceed. In general,
whenever she wanted to make her case, she didn’t necessarily state her objective explicitly.
Instead, she would lay out the facts with a slant toward the conclusion she wanted
to reach. By the time she was done with her presentation, her interlocutor could see
things from her perspective. This was how she handled her foreign counterparts; it
was how she went into the meeting with the president. As usual, he wanted to know
from her what and who she could deliver.

She laid out what she had heard in Paris. Sarkozy was intent on having his war. He
wanted a no-fly zone. The British also wanted action. They were going to push a resolution
at the UN for a no-fly zone. But she had told them such a move wasn’t going to make
a real difference, and she had spent time assessing their intentions. Did they just
want to take their fighter jets out for a spin so they could feel good about themselves,
or were they ready to stick it out and do things right? She had spoken to the Arabs
and gotten their commitment that they would contribute military assets and would not
get squeamish after the first shots were fired. She had sat down with the Libyan opposition
chief and assessed what kind of leadership he offered for the Libya of tomorrow.

Obama was also convinced that a no-fly zone would not cut it. America could feel good
about being on the right side of history, but people would still get killed. Not acting
was not an option; it could affect America’s long-term interests in the region and
set a terrible example for Arab leaders who might take U.S. inaction as an inability
to act. They might deduce that they could kill their people with no consequences whatsoever.
Clinton made clear that a vote was going to take place in New York—the United States
could either lead or be led.

“Let’s drive this,” she said. Susan Rice chimed in. She already had a draft for a
tougher resolution that went beyond a no-fly zone and included a call for “all necessary
measures” to protect civilians. All necessary measures meant that the United States
and its allies would be able to actively impede the advance of Gaddafi’s force and
strike them from the air. This was well beyond just a sky patrol. Clinton had set
the stage about a discussion for broad action. After the call ended, others, like
Samantha Power, chimed in, telling Obama to go for the “all necessary measures” option.

Obama asked the military to present him with more detailed plans. When they all reconvened
a few hours later, Clinton was fast asleep in Cairo, where it was four in the morning.
She was represented at the table by one of her deputies, Jim Steinberg, with orders
to say yes to “all necessary measures.” The president was given the details of the
three options available: no action, no-fly zone, or all necessary measures. He went
for the last one.

*   *   *

Later, I also came to understand the extent to which the United States was worried
that it could enter this battle, believing the Arabs and Europeans were securing its
flanks, only to find itself alone on the front line with everyone hanging back. What
guarantees did it have that, once the strikes started, the region’s rulers wouldn’t
publicly wash their hands of the operation and condemn the deaths of Muslims at the
hands of the American bully?

Washington had in the past openly, publicly, and very loudly driven the process of
building a coalition to drive out an invader or stop a massacre, but this was a new
style of American leadership—a more modest one, one that made it possible for unlikely
partners, such as the Arab League, to cooperate with Washington. The shadow of the
Iraq War was ever present. To a world unaccustomed to a silent superpower, this nuanced
diplomacy gave the impression that the United States was
reluctant. The United States
was
reluctant: to get burned alone. It was time for Europe to grow up and assume its
share of responsibilities, and it was time for Arab leaders to develop a spine.

So Washington kept its cards close to its chest. American officials didn’t want to
make any statements that would allow others to suddenly sit back and push America
to the front. If the United States was suddenly seen leading a war effort, it would
undermine the careful work being done at the UN and, more crucially, it could scare
the Arabs away. But the silence meant that Clinton and Obama were being harshly criticized
for not helping to stop an impending massacre.

*   *   *

We flew into the might from Cairo to Tunis, over the Mediterranean, steering clear
of Libyan airspace and a country at war. The flight path on our screen showed Benghazi,
just south of the plane. Hillary had been given her own stapler, which sat on her
desk in her cabin with the words
The Secretary
taped on it. There hadn’t been much time to think of Tunisia yet. The line officers
had asked the Building for talking points ahead of the town hall in Tunis. They wanted
to know what young people in Tunisia wanted to hear from the secretary. Instead, they
got vague, outdated generalities. Molly, Andrew, and Jake got to work on the plane
rewording all the documents. Molly felt like the world was ending. If America’s bureaucracy
had reached its limit, there was no hope for others.

Our stop in Tunis was the usual Hillary template: official meetings and public diplomacy.
But the real action was taking place on the phone, away from our prying ears. Earlier
in the day, the operations center had sent an update about the secretary’s communications
to her close aides.

From: OPS Alert

Sent: Thursday, March 17, 2011 5:41 AM

To:

Subject: The Secretary has requested to speak with Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov

Then seven hours later, as she stepped off the stage at the end of a town hall, Jake
handed her a cell phone.

From: OPS

Sent: Thursday, March 17, 2011 1:09 PM

To:

Subject: The Secretary is speaking with Russian FM Lavrov

Clinton needed to make sure Russia wasn’t going to veto the resolution. She had told
Lavrov that if Gaddafi was crazy before, he was only going to get worse if international
pressure was suddenly lifted. The clampdown had to continue, and this resolution was
the next step.

“C’mon, Sergei, this is important. And the Arab League and the Arab countries are
behind us,” Hillary told him.
33
He told her it was a mistake but that Russia would not use its veto.

We got on the plane and headed home; everyone was exhausted. Clinton got on the phone
to Obama, Gates, and Donilon. Jake seemed to be melting as the trip proceeded, despite
Molly’s and Andrew’s efforts to keep him fed with beef jerky. The first meal of the
flight had been served while he was in the secretary’s cabin talking about the vote
coming up at the UN, and he had missed it. In New York, the Security Council chambers
were filling up with delegates. Susan Rice was making sure all the delegates needed
for the vote were there for the crucial moment. Jake came to the Line of Death to
chat with the traveling press. Engrossed in our travel bubble, we were not fully informed
of the precise details of events at the UN and the exact wording of the resolution
being voted on. We pounced on Jake.

“So is America really going to just stand by while Gaddafi marches on Benghazi?”

Somewhere above the Atlantic, an OPS e-mail dropped. This one was for wider distribution.
The line officer printed it out and passed it around to the senior officials in the
front area. The UN resolution had passed in New York. Russia and China abstained,
as expected. More shocking was Germany’s abstention. Washington would not forgive
that very soon. Also disappointing were the abstentions of Brazil and India, The rising
powers were on the Security Council, and they were showing worrying signs of staying
on the sidelines, unable to get over their own historic wariness about Western-led
interventions, even to stop a dictator from killing his people.

Clinton came out of her cabin in her red fleece jacket and black kitten heels. Rarely
did a trip end with such a visible result. Diplomacy was all about chipping away slowly.
But for once there was a piece of paper being passed around the plane, with the words
“all necessary measures” underlined. There was a definite buzz among the officials
in the front cabin, the sense of a job achieved. Clinton had helped seal the deal.
The United States had carefully orchestrated its approach, in a deliberate manner
that got the international community in lockstep. Obama may never have gone to war
at all if Sarkozy hadn’t been so intent on bombing Tripoli, but once the march toward
war had become inevitable, the U.S. administration had stepped in to drive the effort
in a way that would actually deliver results, not just knock a few buildings down.

Standing by the lavatory, the journalists who just moments ago had criticized Jake
for the administration’s inaction on Libya turned on him again.

“So you’re taking America into a third war?” asked one of the journalists. “As if
Iraq and Afghanistan are not enough! Are you insane?”

Jake rolled his eyes and walked back to his seat.

15

SUMMER OF DISPARATE DISCONTENTS

The stifling heat of D.C. summer had arrived, and I left for a short holiday by the
Mediterranean. Lebanon was by no means cooler, but the sea breeze and open horizon
made up for the humid chaos of Beirut. Amid all the upheaval in the region, Lebanon
was, for once, unusually calm.

The war in Libya was still raging and made the front page of the local newspapers
every day. The bombing campaign had started just a few days after the March 17 vote
at the UN authorizing the use of all necessary measures to protect civilians. From
an informal alliance of countries, it had become a NATO-led operation, and the Russians
were fuming: the campaign meant to protect civilians was turning into a de facto full-blown
operation designed to help the rebels advance on Tripoli and forcibly bring down Gaddafi.
Toppling Gaddafi was not what the resolution had stated, although early on in the
campaign, whispers of these unstated motives had abounded. I wondered if the shrewd
Russians had really not seen beyond the subtle wording of the resolution when they
agreed not to use their veto. Either way, Russia would in the future conveniently
hold up this episode as proof that the West could not be trusted.

As the war dragged on, Hillary spent much of her time keeping the coalition together,
refereeing spats between the French, Italians, and others who threw fits and threatened
to quit. Through Amr Moussa, the Arab League’s cigar-smoking secretary-general, the
league predictably criticized the military strikes the minute they started. Moussa
stated that the attacks went beyond what had been called for. Qatar and the UAE got
cold feet: four days after the war had started, the fighter planes they had promised
to contribute were nowhere to be seen. Clinton picked up the phone and spoke to the
Qatari and Emirati foreign ministers and other Arab leaders.