SCOTT SIMON, Host:
The leading critic of the no-fly mission in Libya found himself defending that mission this week. Defense Secretary Robert Gates had warned for weeks the mission will not be easy.
Questions about the mission in Libya dogged the secretary all week. He was on the road visiting Russia and Egypt and Israel. NPR's Rachel Martin was traveling with Secretary Gates. First stop Russia.
RACHEL MARTIN: So we're here in St. Petersburg. I'm in a scrum of reporters, and we're waiting for Secretary Gates to fire off what's called the noon cannon. This has been happening for hundreds of years here, and today on this short visit, he is going to share in that tradition. So we're just waiting for noon.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELLS)
MARTIN: The bells in a nearby tower strike noon, and after a Russian official counted to five, Gates fired.
(SOUNDBITE OF CANNON FIRING)
MARTIN: At one point during the event, a Russian journalist shouted out a question. What will the coalition's next move in Libya be, he asked.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
MARTIN: Gates and his Russian host laughed, and the journalist was told that this was just a tourist visit.
Russia was the first stop on a trip that began last weekend. On the plane over that first day, Gates spoke to reporters. Everyone on board remembered the secretary's blunt talk to Congress just before the operation began, and Gates told us that his words then still apply.
ROBERT GATES: When I said let's call a spade a spade, it was that a no-fly zone begins with an attack on Libya. I think that was pretty accurate statement. So I think what I've tried to do is really just make clear what is involved in this, and that it is a complex undertaking.
MARTIN: The same questions about Libya came up again and again on the trip. What are the next steps in Libya? What is the ultimate goal? Secretary Gates navigated each answer carefully, mostly the answer was we don't know. Whether he was talking about Gadhafi's future...
GATES: I think there are any number of possible outcomes here, and no one's in a position to predict them.
MARTIN: ...or the capacity of rebel forces...
GATES: It may be that the changed circumstances, they return to the fight, but we just don't know that now.
MARTIN: ...or how long the operation could last.
GATES: The no-fly zone is not time limited by the Security Council resolution. So I think that there is no current time line in terms of when it might end.
MARTIN: How and when it might end is exactly what people do want to know, especially in the region. In the middle of the week, Secretary Gates visited Cairo. What he wanted to do was to affirm U.S. support for the transitional government. But what everybody else wanted to talk about was Libya.
One Egyptian journalist asked if there's a chance the Libyan operation could turn into a long war like the one in Iraq. Gates said Libya is different in several ways. There's more Arab support, he said, the U.S. won't be in the lead, and maybe most significant...
GATES: The president further has made quite explicit that there will no American ground troops in Libya.
MARTIN: Having spent more than four years trying to resolve the American Wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan, Gates understands the risks of being involved in a third war in a Muslim country. For now, though, there are more questions than answers about a mission with an undefined outcome and open-ended commitment, and a secretary of defense saying in so many words, I told you so.
Rachel Martin, NPR News Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.