The US had already tried to train a Libyan counterterrorism unit inside Libya. The unit was being trained by US Special Operations forces. Of course these never count as “boots on the ground” for US authorities. The group being trained was drawn almost exclusively from the western part of Libya and could have been used by the central government against enemies in the east that recently declared an autonomous government in Cyrenaica. However, in August militias launched a pre-dawn raid on the training camp which was not well-guarded. There were no US soldiers at the camp, but the militia took a great deal of US military equipment from the site, some of it sensitive. The US decided to abort the program and the US forces supposedly went home. However, at the same there are new plans to train Libyan security forces:
Over the summer, AFRICOM, along with the militaries of Italy, Turkey, and the United Kingdom committed to train, advise, and equip a new Libyan army — a “general purpose force,” in formal military terms.
The group decided that it was not safe to train the forces in Libya itself. No doubt the militias would attack trainers and also Libyans associated with the training. Instead the training will take place in Bulgaria, Italy, Turkey, and the UK.
The militias know what is going on. There may be no government left in Libya to cooperate with western plans as the central government becomes so weak it may disintegrate altogether. Part of the weakness resulted from the Libyan government’s perceived cooperation in the kidnapping of al-Libi and now a scheme to build up central government forces under foreign auspices. Even the Grand Mufti of Libya has weighed in on the military plan:
The influential Grand Mufti of Libya recently issued a statement asking whether young Libyans being trained by foreign militaries would acquire kidnapping skills. If and when U.S. special operations forces seize those suspected of last year’s attack on the U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, we can expect the Islamist backlash to further erode support for the creation of a U.S.- and NATO-trained army.
Some reports are suggesting that there could be civil war in Libya. There is one article suggesting this at Global Post. However, even an Al Jazeera article speculates on the possibility of civil war.