Actually Qaddafi staying and seriously opening talks and embracing reforms with his populace is superior to him running off into exile.

But the problem the US has is that we do a lot of lecturing on values and human rights; then when a populace dares to act out we look away.

The question for the US is if we have vital interests at stake in how this plays out. Not in if Qaddafi stays or goes, but in how it plays out in deciding that and how our role is perceived. The entire Arabian Peninsula is teetering as we type, and our actions could well affect whether that stabilizes, or which way it tips.

It is the pent up rage of these populaces that AQ has fed upon, this is the festering boil of oppression that has fed the war on terrorism for 15 odd years. Now it is rupturing, and that pressure will either finally be relieved, or it will be reasserted by either the current or new management. How ever it plays, the West will be judged by these populaces, and if we play this wrong, terrorism continues and may get worse. If we play it right things begin to heal.

This is far more important than Afghanistan is for getting to resolution in the war on terror. Afghanistan is just where AQ planted the flag, but North Africa and the AP are where the people who support their movement live in varying states of oppression.

For Libya, this is all about Libya. But for the US this is far, far larger.