Cast of Characters in Libya Better Than Soap Opera

The hottest soap opera currently on the world stage is Libya. A tale filled with actors so deliciously devious that even the short attention span of the casual American news viewer is captured. We have Qaddafi, a man with no official title, he has led this North African nation for over 40 years! Now get this, Qaddafi has 7 sons, 2 of them, Saif & Mutassim wrestle with one another to become the next leader of Libya. Saif is said to lean more towards reform for the Libyan government, while Mutassim is rumored to be the hardliner, & less interested in the western ways of governing.
More than two hundred Tomahawk missiles, NATO bombing & strafing campaigns have seemed to make Qaddafi war weary enough to allow his son Saif to tell the western powers that he would be willing to takeover for his father as leader of Libya under a constitutional democracy.
The "rebels" opposing Qaddafi have seemed to hit a wall in their attacks on the dictator's forces. They have had to retreat & regroup in the face of stiff defense & increasing offense from Qaddafi's forces. This puts American government officials in the awkward position of pondering the consequences of training & arming the untrained & unknown "rebels" that wish to completely remove the Qaddafi family from power. The "rebels" are also not interested in Saif, nor his promise of constitutional democracy.

Defection during war is usually an unwelcome visitor upon a dictator's doorstep. Qaddafi has had a major defection from within his circle. His Foreign Minister & confidante, Moussa Koussa has defected & decided to strike a deal with the British. This is interesting considering he is suspected to be one of the masterminds of the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. Scotland Yard plans on questioning him within days. The United States has also removed sanctions on Mr. Koussa, saying the sanctions have worked forcing the Libyan diplomat to switch sides.
Italy, which had their banks bailed out by the Libyan government not too long ago has decided to recognize the "rebels" as the leaders of Libya. For Qaddafi it has been one step forward & two steps back. The light at the end of the tunnel for Qaddafi may be the dysfunction, & lack of cohesion within the "rebel" groups. Qaddafi's forces have been pushing the rebels into retreat for the past few days. Should the United States arm the rebels & risk creating a new Osama Bin Laden type character? Is a third war simply too big of a commitment even in a support role for the US military? Can we still consider this a worthy cause if in the end Qaddafi holds onto power & has the ability to retaliate on the rebels? What do you think?
Information gathered for this article came from New York Times http://www.NYtimes.com articles by David Kirkpatrick, Kareem Fahim, & Scott Shane. The map of Africa with Libya highlighted in green came from the CIA World Factbook https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ly.html