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targets—was largely American. It would be another 10 days before
she would go to London to arrange for the military campaign to be
handled by nato. Whatever the burden-sharing logistics, the United
States was in deep now, on a course that no one could predict.
Madam Secretary
For Barack Obama, the Arab Spring and its aftermath will shape just
one critical piece of his record. But, for Hillary Clinton, the swirling
challenges of the region are likely to determine her legacy. Many
diplomats remain anxious; the world they knew has been upended.
Yet they also understand that the months ahead will be Hillary’s
moment to help turn those ripples into a permanent tide of reform and
renewal.
But Hillary’s intense diplomatic efforts to forge a coalition to go to
war in Libya came at the exact worst time, only two months after
WikiLeaks, the whistle-blowing Web site run by Julian Assange,
began posting thousands of classified State Department cables online.
Candid descriptions of foreign leaders (e.g., Putin is the “alpha dog”
of a “virtual mafia state”) were published around the world and have
already led to the departure of U.S. ambassadors in Mexico and
Ecuador, with more fallout on the way. Hillary told staff that she
could not fathom how an army private, Bradley Manning, with
psychological problems and a drag-queen boyfriend could single-
handedly cause the United States unprecedented embarrassment just
by labeling massive downloads as Lady Gaga songs.
Several allies needed little comfort. “Don’t worry about it,” one
leader told Hillary. “You should see what we say about you.” Italian
prime minister Silvio Berlusconi wasn’t so forgiving. In 2008 the
loutish media baron and billionaire had described Barack Obama as
“young, handsome and bronzato (bronzed),” but after WikiLeaks he
chose to play the victim. It wasn’t clear whether he was genuinely
upset about a cable describing him as “physically and politically
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