The request by Libya's Transitional National Council for NATO to continue its military mission in the country despite the overthrow and slaying of Col. Muammar Gaddafi is a reminder that Libya may have some things in common with Afghanistan circa January 2002. There, the Taliban had been routed and driven out of power by a NATO-enabled indigenous opposition (the Northern Alliance), and a new government -- under President Hamid Karzai -- had been put in place, recognized by the international community before its legitimacy and support had been established through any indigenous political process. The number of foreign troops in the country was small, and what lay ahead was the challenge of reconstruction, building a new state from scratch on the ruins of one that had ...