On Libya, a New Kind of American Leadership

Reasonable people can differ on whether it makes sense for the United States to pursue military action in Libya. As someone who had been of two minds on the matter, I found the President’s speech on Monday evening persuasive on balance. One factor in particular tipped the scale for me: President Obama seemed convinced, and Administration officials have confirmed as much, that two weeks ago, a large-scale massacre in Benghazi, on the order of tens or hundreds of thousands of lives, was imminent.

The rest of the criteria for action were already lined up in my mind. I had, in fact, been admiring the way the Administration was laying the groundwork for the campaign, even if they were late in explaining to Americans what they were doing.

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This article was originally published in Democracy Journal.