Andrew Exum imagines the country after Qaddafi:
The Italian governors of Libya systematically undermined the old Ottoman administration, which they viewed as a threat. Gadhafi, incredibly, managed to make things worse. Suspicious of the very idea of the Libyan state, he denied such a state was necessary and undermined any attempt to create functioning bureaucracies. This will be the Libya that whoever replaces Moammar Gadhafi will inherit.
The challenges for all international partners who seek to support a new government in Libya will also be immense. Most post-conflict states … go through a stage where external aid exceeds the the government's capacity to effectively administer it, creating conditions ripe for corruption. In Libya's case … , you will [have] a similar situation with both a) a lot of government oil revenues and b) very little bureaucracy capable of redistributing resources within the society.
It could make post-Saddam Iraq look advanced. But in the well-intended rush to prevent a massacre in Benghazi, we took a measure of responsibility for the outcome.
The Dish 