Adam Garfinkle, the editor of the American Interest who is very well-informed about this region, has a piece that I’d recommend reading, except it’s just too depressing. Short version: This is a hell of a mess that it will be hard to get out of. But he thinks there’s no way we can leave Qaddafi in power now:
As I have said, a Qaddafi left armed and dangerous when the dust settles is an unacceptable outcome. Civilian planes will likely start falling out the sky, as did the one over Lockerbie; assassination attempts will multiply, like the attempted Libyan-backed murder of the Saudi king in 2003; al-Qaeda and affiliates might be aided and abetted to do Lord-knows-what to the Italians, the French, the British and, of course, to us. With nothing to lose, and way beyond the threshold of worrying about sanctions and such, Qaddafi could well become more dangerous than ever. If I were Silvio Berlusconi, in particular, I’d pick my future whorehouses with extreme care.