Libya is in imminent danger of falling apart, becoming not one failed state but two. Three years after Britain, France and the United States deployed fighter aircraft against Colonel Gaddafi’s troops, Libya has become a basket case. No functioning police, a splintered army, an Islamist government in Tripoli, an official one elsewhere. The Nato mission was intended as a model for how the alliance could steer change. Now it is one of many failures that will not get a mention at the Welsh summit.
Worse, Libya is becoming a cockpit for rivalries across the Middle East. The United Arab Emirates and Egypt, fearing that Islamists could take over, struck targets in Tripoli last month. Different Gulf countries now find themselves on opposing sides in Libya, Lebanon and Egypt. Such involvement only fuels chaos.