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Mrs. Clinton was won over. Opposition leaders “said all the right things about supporting democracy and inclusivity and building Libyan institutions, providing some hope that we might be able to pull this off,” said Philip H. Gordon, one of her assistant secretaries. “They gave us what we wanted to hear. And you do want to believe.”
Her conviction would be critical in persuading Mr. Obama to join allies in bombing Colonel Qaddafi’s forces. In fact, Mr. Obama’s defense secretary, Robert M. Gates, would later say that in a “51-49” decision, it was Mrs. Clinton’s support that put the ambivalent president over the line.
The consequences would be more far-reaching than anyone imagined, leaving Libya a failed state and a terrorist haven, a place where the direst answers to Mrs. Clinton’s questions have come to pass.
I’ve tried to write my thoughts here about seven times now. I just can’t get it. I am beyond understanding how consistently making mistakes this bad, with results so monstrously and viciously horrible for millions and millions of people, gets rewarded with votes for a presidency and a position as commander-in-chief of the world’s most powerful military. I just don’t understand it.
(Please read this long and deep dive into SoS Hillary Clinton’s role in the ongoing disaster that was and remains the U.S. intervention in Libya: mobile.nytimes.com/...)