After seven months of struggle, setbacks and swift advances, the end game is finally being played out in Libya. In Sabha, Muammar Gaddafi's loyalists have been routed, and there are but isolated pockets of resistance against the National Transitional Council (NTC).
The new rulers face the task of bringing Gaddafi, his sons and their henchmen to justice either at home or at the International Criminal Court at The Hague. But that is a deed for another day. Right now, the NTC faces the daunting prospect of rebuilding the nation, its administrative machine, a government and a modern, open, democratic society.
Libya's crumbling and damaged infrastructure will also need rebuilding, so too its schools and hospitals.
The UAE continues to provide material aid and other assistance to the new rulers, with police cars and uniforms assisting Libya's fledgling civil police to perform their duties. And in another sign that Tripoli is entering a new era of reconciliation and transformation, the United States is reopening its embassy in the capital. But the measure of a new Libya will not alone be counted in new roads, schools, hospitals and bridges — it will be measured by how all Libyans are treated.