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regimes at a conference in Qatar that “the region’s foundations are
sinking into the sand.” Within days, demonstrators filled Cairo’s
Tahrir Square, a vibrant plea for greater freedom that swiftly spread
to Jordan, Yemen, Bahrain, Oman, Libya, and eventually even Syria.
But if Madam Secretary could be ahead of the curve, she was also
sometimes behind it, caught in a dizzying series of upheavals that left
her both exhilarated and exhausted. In early February, Hillary said
the regime of Hosni Mubarak was “stable”; he was gone 17 days
later. When she felt White House officials were pushing too hard in
public statements for Mubarak to resign, Hillary complained to
President Obama, who was unmoved. Yet on the big picture,
especially the need to isolate the menacing regime in Tehran, the
president and his secretary of state fully agreed. They understood
immediately that, for all the facile accusations of inconsistency and
hypocrisy, a one-size-fits-all foreign policy wouldn’t work.
Doctrines, they felt, were for the doctrinaire.
Hillary had been one of the first in the administration to privately
raise the issue of a no-fly zone. But she retreated when her main ally
in the Cabinet, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, loudly and publicly
said a no-fly zone would mean attacking ground positions, and it was
a bad idea to get involved in Libya. The White House was searching
for a way to arm the rebels—a strategy Hillary found problematic—
but also resisted a no-fly zone. “Lots of people throw around phrases
like no-fly zone. They talk about it as though it’s just a video game,”
White House chief of staff Bill Daley said dismissively.
Hillary decided to push her case on March 12, after the Arab League
voted to request action from the U.N. Security Council—an
extraordinary decision to break Arab ranks and ask the nations they
had for so long denounced as colonialists to help. “Their statement
moved her,” said a close aide, adding that two meanings of “moved”
applied.

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