It was a fleeting display of the kind of defiance of official authority that coalition forces are counting on from the people and tribes of western Libya, who dominate the country's military, to drive Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi from power.
Rather than a muddy division of responsibilities among the United Nations, local authorities and coalition forces, an official occupation makes clear that the buck stops with the United States and Britain.
Human rights activists and journalists who attempted to document the mass mobilisation of workers were subjected to harassment, persecution and intimidation by the authorities, the coalition says.
'When a sovereign government is installed,' he said a few days ago, 'the coalition authority will cede authority to the government and my job here will be over.' If this sounds wildly optimistic, it's worth remembering that there is democratic life now in Iraq, with regular peaceful demonstrations and 60 newspapers already being printed.
Under its incoming ambassador, John Negroponte, the American embassy is to have more staff than the coalition authority does now.
Leading conservative legislators say Mrs. Merkel should have imposed her authority over the coalition instead of tolerating the arguments.
Officials of the outgoing coalition authority resist the idea that Iraqis, rather than multinational forces, should impose martial law.
But during the time the 101st has been in Mosul, three regional coalition authority directors have come and gone.
Only by understanding these ties and then using them to its advantage will the coalition authority reduce the resistance.
"The threat of Isis was created by the Iraqi coalition authority, which ousted the entire government of Iraq.
Two weeks ago, a team of private security guards fought for hours to defend a coalition authority building in Kut.
