Like the Romanian Ceausescu back in 1989 or with Saddam Hussein back in 2003, slowly but surely we are seeing the regime of a tyrannical tyrant, falling to pieces.
As I blogged here back in February, I supported the United Nations resolution to provide air attack to stop Gaddafi's regime from inflicting any further horrors on its own people. It hasn't been an easy 6 months since but it was the right decision at the time and events are proving that in retrospect it was the right decision also.
The relative ease to which the 'rebel' troops surged into Tripoli on Sunday gave the lie to Gaddafi's words over previous months. There has clearly not been the overwhelming support for the fallen leader in his nation's capital as he had stated there was.
I must admit that I missed the sudden and swift entry into Tripoli on Sunday evening so I was intrigued to read the views of friends on Facebook who criticised the BBC's slow handling of the on-going and fast-paced developments as opposed to Sky News' front-line presence. Stephen Glenn mentioned it in his blog post here and it chimed with my frustration at the Beeb's slow response to the London Riots of a few weeks back as opposed to Sky News' up-to-the-minute updates on their coverage.
The Arab Sptring Claims Another Victim
After almost 42 years in power (he took control after a bloodless coup on September 1st 1969), his reign as the longest-serving Arab leader is drawing to a close.
It is critical that this modern coup has been done on the ground by the Libyans themselves and not by an imperialist foreign power.
It follows on from the success of the insugencies from below in neighbouring Tunisia and Egypt and whilst at the time of typing, Gaddafi's exact whereabouts is still unknown, it is clear that when he does surface, whether dead or alive (and I very much expect it'll be the former) it will be to a transformed political environment in his beloved Libya in which his his powerbase has evaporated into the mist of battle.
What will come next? There's no certainty. The west will hope for a relatively calm transition to a broadly democratic Libya thought the various factions that have brought about Gaddafi's downfall will quite likely have different opinions as to how that future should look.
There's no certainties apart from one and that is that Gaddafi's time as the Head of State in Libya is drawing to an imminent close.
Not a moment to soon.
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