Only a respected army will be able to persuade or force the various competing and heavily armed militias around the country to disarm and join together under a unified leadership. The challenge was underscored over the weekend when a militia from the town of Zintan captured Seif al-Islam el-Qaddafi, Colonel Qaddafi’s son and onetime heir apparent, without any help from the army, and then refused to turn him over to the central government.

The army is trying to build respect by holding parades around the country, complete with parachute jumps and fly-bys by Soviet-era MIG fighter jets and Mi-8 helicopters. But even the officers of the new force say they face challenges in building national veneration around the military, as well as in breaking old habits of officer cronyism and allegiance to one strongman or another.

The new army, which numbers a few thousand and includes many soldiers who deserted Colonel Qaddafi’s military, needs barracks, uniforms, vehicles, boots, radios, even flashlights, officers say. Rather than having a central unified command, it is being formed by distinct committees in different cities, following the model of the diverse bunch of militias that fought the war against the dictatorship. And perhaps most troubling, the militias across the country are already refusing to take its orders.

In its first mission just over a week ago, the army sent 100 troops to Al Maya, a village just west of the capital, to separate two fighting militias and retake an old army base that is now a heap of bombed-out buildings and rusting tanks. Its success at negotiating a tentative settlement between the militias after four days of fighting that left at least 13 dead was lauded as a model for the building of a new army that can serve as a unifying force.

But one of the militias, from Zawiyah, has already broken its promise to keep its weapons at home, setting up a roadblock on the main road a couple of miles west of the army base as a sign of resistance. Armed with heavy machine guns atop pickup trucks, the militiamen say they are going nowhere. Meanwhile the army troops are staying at the base, putting a fresh coat of white paint on the outer walls and beginning to clean up the grounds.