by Zack Beauchamp
Chris Steven thinks NTC ability to control Tripoli is a key test of what we're in for:
Factionalism has been a key problem among Libya's rebels in this six month war, with the still unexplained murder of army commander Abdul Fatah Younis seeing units loyal to him coming back to the front and threatening violence against NTC officials they blame for the killing. Their anger was assuaged only with the appointment of a new army commander, Suleiman Obedi, who is from the same Obedi tribe as Younis. Another split has been between Misrata and Benghazi. After the assassination, Misrata rebel army spokesman Ibrahim Betalmal underlined to the Guardian that Misratan units did not accept orders from NTC military command, while continuing to remain on paper loyal to the NTC. The NTC has included members from different parts of Libya in an attempt to present itself as a government in exile, but those members were chosen by Mustafa Abdul Jalil and his Benghazi-based colleagues, and many parts of Libya, including Misrata, the third city, and the capital, may refuse to accept that these appointees represent them. The litmus test of NTC authority will be the ability of Jalil to establish control over rebel forces now spreading out across Tripoli, and whether the Gaddafi regime, likely soon to be shorn of its leader, tries to reestablish itself as a political force.
James M. Lindsay talks with Robert Danin and Daniel Serwer, who add more reasons for both for worry and hope. Christopher Hill believes international assistance will be integrally important in establishing a post-Qaddafi order, but Ackerman reports that if that means troops, it sure won't be Americans. It was right to celebrate Qaddafi's hard-won downfall, but now comes an equally difficult, if likely harder, part. Check out the interesting exchange between Glenn Greenwald and Marc Lynch for further commentary.
The Dish 