Today, Tripoli much resembles Kabul in 1992. The world community must stay committed to helping the Libyans with a peaceful and democratic transition.

From Tripoli to Iraq, the United States to win its battles, forgive its enemies, and move forward in peace.

It's time Washington learn the lesson: Gadhafi's history shows that diplomacy with rogue rulers is a waste of time.

How applicable is this model of indigenous regime change supported by an international coalition with the United States in a supporting role to future efforts to prevent atrocities?

Forces allied to the former Gadhafi regime could still threaten a fragile new government using guerilla and terrorist tactics. It would be a mistake to underestimate his tenacity or to dismiss the warning of his son Seif that "We will fight to our very last man, woman, and bullet."

Today there is much that we can do, without a costly military commitment, to help Libyans build a better future. This is leadership the US can afford. In the end, we will pay a higher price if we do nothing.

With the initiation of Operation "Odyssey Dawn" in Libya, the United States has entered a third war in the greater Middle East. Discussing this complex and confusing situation will be AEI scholars Thomas Donnelly, Paul Wolfowitz, and Danielle Pletka, joined by Michael O'Hanlon and Kenneth Pollack from the Brookings Institution.

Much could be done now to shift that balance against the regime--and hasten the end of Gaddafi’s massacres--without escalating foreign military involvement and perhaps even without supplying weapons to the opposition.