No reason to indulge in either-or fallacies. We all agree that the regime is more bad than good at this point, we just differ on how to weight the improvements Gaddafi brought to Libya against his longstanding and ongoing violent suppression of the populace.

Molly's point about the Cold War distorting the record of previous attempts at democratisation is well taken. Historically, we've much preferred pro-US dictators to even the possibility of a left-leaning popular government. After all, who helped secure King Idris' domination of Libya in the first place?