US Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has acknowledged that the unrest in Libya did not pose an immediate threat to the United States. He and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the Obama administration was justified in taking military action to avert a massacre there that could have altered the course of the popular revolts roiling the Arab world. It was a rare joint appearance by Secretary Gates and Secretary Clinton. According to reports, improbable allies who started out with sharply different views of what to do about Libya but have converged in the belief that the brutality of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi demanded a military response. Meanwhile, comments made by President Obama’s two top national security officials, on various talk shows offered a striking illustration of the complex calculus that President Obama faced in committing the military to impose a no-fly zone over Libya.1

• 1. “Gates and Clinton Unite to Defend Libya Intervention, and Say It May Last a While” The New York Times, March 27, 2011 at http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/28/world/africa/28policy.html