Worrisome Signs of a Fractured Libyan Army

Over the years, the regime of Moammar Gadhafi has tried to keep the Libyan military divided in order to prevent a coup. But doing so can reduce a military's effectiveness by putting people into leadership roles whose primary qualifications are loyalty to the regime, not military expertise. It also can entail playing personalities off of one another, both within the military and between the military and other security forces. While this can help keep a regime secure, it can also create deep rifts that can quickly widen when the regime begins to weaken.