The cycle of

creative destruction that began with isolated uprisings last spring

and took a decisive turn when U.S. and European forces threw in

with Libyan rebels the following month reached a milestone Thursday

with the news that deposed Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi had

been smoked out of hiding and killed near his hometown

Sirte.

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“font-family:”>Now comes the hard part.

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“font-family:”>The cycle of creative destruction that began with

isolated uprisings last spring and took a decisive turn when U.S.

and European forces threw in with Libyan rebels the following month

reached a milestone Thursday with the news that deposed Libyan

strongman Moammar Gadhafi had been smoked out of hiding and killed

near his hometown Sirte.

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“font-family:”>While it has been months since forces loyal to

Gadhafi exerted any influence over the country’s affairs, leaders

of the loose-knit coalition that has served as Libya’s transitional

government had declared his capture or death the prerequisite to

the beginning of a process they say will lead to a general election

for a national council sometime next year.

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“font-family:”>The key question for Libyans is no longer “Where is

Gadhafi?” but “Who are his successors?” And how

soon can they

replace the wreckage of his despotic regime with the foundations of

a sustainable democratic government?

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“font-family:”>President Barak Obama rolled the dice when he

committed U.S. military support to a-then inchoate coalition

of rebel

forces last March, just when a resurgent Gadhafi was on the verge

of annihilating them.

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“font-family:”>But the rebels took full advantage of that risky

intervention, and stunned the world when their lightening

assault on

Tripoli sent Gadhafi and his dwindling loyalists scurrying for

cover just a few months later.

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“font-family:”>As in Iraq and Tunisia, the nature of the successor

government that will eventually emerge from the stew of

tribal leaders

and committed Islamists that conspired to oust Gadhafi are hard to

discern.

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“font-family:”>The United States and Libya’s immediate neighbors

are united in the hope that that any democratic coalition will

ultimately prove more stable than the autocracy it displaced. But

now, the realization of that fond hope is squarely in the hands of

the Libyan people.

• MCT Campus