HMM: Armed Services Dem views Libya as model for future missions. “The U.S.- and NATO-led intervention in Libya’s civil war provides a blueprint for future uses of American military force, the top House Armed Services Committee Democrat said Friday. Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) on Friday called the operation, which led to the ouster and death of Moammar Gadhafi, ‘the biggest’ American foreign policy success during his eight terms in Congress.”

Meanwhile, back in Libya: “While the representatives of the Zawiya rebels and the Wershifanna on the NTC can agree on a peace deal, they are having a hard time selling it to the young guys out on the coast road who have been shooting at each other. . . . The NTC has announced that it will disarm (or at least disband) the dozens of rebel militias and create security forces (police and military). But actually doing this is complicated by the tribal militias and growing number of ‘payback’ attacks on real or imagined Kaddafi supporters. Restoring law and order is going to be very difficult, especially since Kaddafi maintained order largely with secret police and deals with tribal leaders.”