Eventually, militias have to disappear. The new Libyan government is trying to do that:
A gunbattle broke out overnight when armed men in the vehicles of Libya's new national army tried to take control of Tripoli's international airport from a powerful militia, the commander of the airport's security force said Sunday.
It was the latest in a series of clashes between the rival militias which, in the absence of a fully-functioning central government, have wielded real power on the streets in Libya since a revolt forced out former leader Muammar Gaddafi.
This isn't the way to transition from a coalition of resistance to a government monopoly of military force. Yes, in some cases the new government needs to send in its own forces to replace militias--even using force if they won't give way. But just as the Anbar Awakening required the Iraqi government to absorb some of these men who switched sides into the security forces, Libya's government needs to do the same. Not all of them. And most shouldn't be absorbed as units but rather have their men mixed into other units. But they can't just be kicked aside. Or worse, just attacked. And if you attack them (as some will need to be), for Pete's sake destroy them!
And hey, as long as I'm thinking about Iraq, when are the bright lads here going to insist that the Libyans have to reconstitute the now scattered loyalist Libyan armed forces to keep them from being provoked into resistance? Does that sound stupid? Good. Maybe the notion that it was a mistake to formally disband the already self-disbanded Saddam army will die once and for all.
